Hawaiian Electric Grants Support Programs to Mitigate Climate Change

Several nonprofits throughout the state focused on the environment and conservation, including an organization based on the Big Island, will benefit from grants through Hawaiian Electric.

Hawaiian Electric awarded grants totaling $77,000 to seven organizations whose programs are aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change through education, stewardship and reforestation. Among the awardees is the Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization, which is located in Waimea.

Here are the organizations that Hawaiian Electric is helping:

• Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization intends to mobilize three wildfire collaboratives consisting of key partners, landowners and managers from high-risk wildfire regions throughout the state with the goal of expanding educational outreach and sharing mitigation planning, preparedness and best practices.
• Mālama Learning Center (Oʻahu) will continue its Ola Nā Kini program, which is focused on regenerating native and edible forests and communities in the Honouliuli and Nānākuli watersheds through education and engagement with a segment on wildfire mitigation.
• Hawaiʻi Nature Center (Oʻahu) will use the funds for its 2022 school and community programs on Oʻahu and Maui that immerse children in the wonders of nature and fosters their awareness, appreciation, understanding and stewardship of Hawaiʻi’s environment.
• Moanalua Gardens Foundation (Oʻahu) will expand its Mālama Kamananui environmental education programs for the next generation of environmental stewards by using online learning through partner schools with experiential field and place-based learning opportunities.
• North Shore Community Land Trust (Oʻahu) designated funds for the Kahuku Point Restoration Project to ensure a healthy, functioning and resilient coastal strand ecosystem that provides habitat for native plants and animals, recreational opportunities for the community and a place to perpetuate traditional Hawaiian practices.
• Protect & Preserve Hawaiʻi (Oʻahu), a community-based conservation group, is working to restore 330 acres of forest in the Pia/Niu Valley area of East Honolulu using native and Hawaiian cultural plants that will increase habitat for threatened and endangered species, increase watershed recharge, sequester carbon, reduce runoff and increase the water quality of Maunalua Bay.
• Trees for Honolulu’s Future (Oʻahu) seeks to improve the urban tree canopy by planting, caring for and protecting trees, especially critical as the island warms because of climate change.