1. Description. Non-technical summary. The puuhonua kauluwehi project aims to develop a rapid response to the recent maui wildfires by collaboratively establishing biocultural refuges supporting the…

1. Description. Non-technical summary. The puuhonua kauluwehi project aims to develop a rapid response to the recent maui wildfires by collaboratively establishing biocultural refuges supporting the cultivation of native plants to accelerate landscape-scale agroecological resilience, food security and community well-being strategies. Puuhonua kauluwehi is a hawaiian phrase describing regenerative agroecosystem areas that provide shelter for native vegetation, attract native birds and insects, and serve as a source of thriving launching points to revegetate the landscape through community engagement. Similar to other biocultural refuge models such as chinampa-refuges in mexico, local biodiversity heritage sites in india, community gardens in the global north, sacred forests in sub-saharan africa, and the traditional local ecological knowledge systems of hawaii, biocultural refuges serve a critical environments to preserve threatened species, endemic genetics, ecosystem services, indigenous knowledge, and the culture of sites threatened by natural disasters. In hawaii, establishing biocultural refuges is even more critical as the unique ecosystems of the islands continue to come under threat from invasive species, drought, commercial development, and lack of ecosystem management and are more at risk due to the dependence on imported response and aid resources from the mainland as demonstrated by the devastating impact of the maui wildfires in august 2023. Research indicates that the annual burn area across all four counties of hawaii has increased by 300% within the past few decadeswith 26% of the state covered by fire-prone invasive grasses.by creating a network of biocultural refuges, the project will cultivate new and existing sites as native seed orchards to feed local seed banks and seek to address the crucial bottleneck in the supply chains of plants for native forest and biocultural restoration projects. While hawaii has pledged to plant and protect 100 million trees by 2030, currently, nearly all native plant material is sourced from wild populations. Developing refuges of native trees, shrubs, and groundcovers would provide an easily accessible and stable source of seeds for planned and anticipated large-scale agroforest restoration projects for wildfire recovery efforts, alleviating pressure on and disturbance of wild plant populations. Locating a model refuge on the uhmc campus and other project partner sites also creates opportunities for much-needed research on native plant growth rates, flowering, fruiting, and seed production, physiological variation, water use, and nutrient requirements, information that can support more effective planting, planning, and care of agroforestry and restoration projects. With 2,100 acres burned in the lahaina wildfire, there is an opportunity to immediately initiate planning, replanting and reforestation of the burn zone areas that harbored the invasive grasses fueling the wind-spread fire and initiate, restoration of the once thriving watershed ecosystem. Long-term benefits of these initiatives include groundwater rechargingto nurture restoration of the region's original wetlands, lowland flats and agroforestry systems such as lahaina's culturally significant, ancient breadfruit grove mala ULU O lele. This proposal responds within 30 days to the immediate need for uhmc and coalition partners to participate in the lahaina treescape restoration project initiated by government, non-profit and private entity stakeholders in september 202311 and outlines a timeline with rapid response activities and deliverables within 90 days. The overarching goal of this integrated strengthening grant proposal is to effectively increase community stakeholders access to environmental, human health, and socioeconomic benefits in disadvantaged communities, broaden youth and adult engagement and education in agroecosystem planning and restoration, increase local capacity for agroforestry restoration across hawaii's landscapes, and enhance awareness of the best practices of biocultural refuges to improve resilience to climate change and extreme events like the on-going threat of wildfires.