Guided by ʻĀina
Hawaiʻi's conservation scientists have been working through biocontrol for years. Now the same ideas are attracting attention from one of the world's largest technology companies.
The Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference is coming up in July. This year's theme is ʻImi i ke Ewe o ka ʻĀina: may we be guided by the wisdom of ʻāina.
Across three days, researchers, cultural practitioners, students, and community members will gather around Hawaiʻi's urgent questions: climate change, restoration, invasive species, and the future of native ecosystems.
One conversation making national headlines is biocontrol.
Through the Birds, Not Mosquitoes initiative, conservation partners on Maui and Kauaʻi are releasing Wolbachia-treated male mosquitoes to help protect native honeycreepers from avian malaria. The males don't bite, and when they mate with wild females, the eggs don't hatch. It is careful work, moving through science, permits, public meetings, policy, and community concern.
Now Alphabet's Debug project is seeking approval to release treated mosquitoes in California and Florida, aimed at reducing dengue and Zika in humans. When a company like Google enters this field, the question shifts: Is it scaling a public-health tool, a data system, or a new kind of environmental decision-making?
As temperatures rise and ecosystems change, more places are facing challenges islands have been navigating for generations. What looks like conservation in Hawaiʻi is also innovation: sustainable, place-based, and increasingly relevant to the rest of the world.
That's what I'll be listening for at ConCon. For more information, visit hawaiiconservation.org.