Bioneers and Breadfruit
In October, I was fortunate to attend Bioneers, a conference in San Rafael, California. The word "conference" is an understatement; I am not sure how to exactly describe the gathering of over 10,000 people. The many speakers—from Amory Lovins to Gloria Steinem to Paul Stamets—were top quality. The topics were fascinating: indigenous activism, food sovereignty, energy transformation. The mix was eclectic, including music, speakers, performance, and, active participation. I found that I was moved in both my mind and my heart. Thoughts about how to bring ideas home had my neurons firing on all cylinders.
One of the speakers that really hit close to home for me was Rebecca Moore from Google Earth Outreach. She demonstrated how communities are using Google Earth to map their natural and cultural resources and then use the information for education and activism. Google Earth is being used to save trees and combat mountain-top removal. A particularly compelling story was about the Surui tribe in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil which is using handheld Androids to map trees and assign carbon values to each tree.
This past fall the Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network received a grant from the Atherton Family Foundation for a Breadfruit Tree Inventory—one of the initiatives of the Ho‘oulu ka ‘Ulu project. We envision a “citizen science” project that would help gather baseline data on the number, location and varieties of productive breadfruit trees that remain on Hawai‘i Island.
Enter Google Earth Outreach! Newly inspired by what communities are doing worldwide with Google Earth, we will be using this tool to map breadfruit trees—or rather we will be asking you to help with the mapping! We will be partnering with and training a number of school and community groups to help with the mapping and asking individuals to log on and add information to the project.
We already have a leg up with some valuable information. Noa Kekuewa Lincoln, a PhD candidate at Stanford University and a member of the Ho‘oulu ka ‘Ulu planning committee recently completed a survey of the kaluulu—a mauka region of Kona where there was a grove of ‘ulu trees ½ mile wide and 18 miles long. Noa conducted original research and has defined the boundaries of this epic pre-contact breadfruit grove in Kona.
Kamehameha Schools has also been mapping the breadfruit trees on their land in South Kona, much of which is within the kaluulu.
The Breadfruit Tree Inventory will provide the foundation for assessing the current and projected production of breadfruit on Hawai‘i Island. Gathering this baseline information will help the Ho‘oulu ka ‘Ulu project assess next steps in the distribution, processing and planting of breadfruit. We also hope the project will engage the public and raise awareness about breadfruit as an important food source.
All of the specific tree location data, by the way, will be kept confidential.
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For an introduction Google Earth Outreach, see http://earth.google.com/outreach/index.html
To get involved in the Breadfruit Tree Inventory project, please contact Andrea Dean or Craig Elevitch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Andrea Dean, MBA, of Sustainable Initiatives works with communities, businesses and non-profits on initiatives that enhance island economy, environment and community. Andrea is also the Special Projects Coordinator for the Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network, and was co-coordinator of the Breadfruit Festival at Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook in September.