LEO 'ELELE - TRUSTEE MESSAGES

Community-based economic
development for Moloka'i

Oz Stender Trustee, At-large

The closure of Moloka'i Ranch exposed the vulnerability of our neighbor island communities to downturns in the global economy. It has also highlighted the importance of community-based economic development (CBED) as an alternative for Moloka'i and our Hawaiian communities.

Trustee Colette Machado is one of the founders of the CBED movement in Hawai'i and in speaking with her, I decided to spotlight the impressive record of the Moloka'i Enterprise Community (EC) in working with the community to generate and sustain CBED projects.

The EC process began in 1998 with Moloka'i residents providing hundreds of volunteer hours in community visioning and planning meetings. The result of this community-based planning effort was a 10-year strategic plan. Ke Aupuni Lōkahi Enterprise Community (KAL/EC), a nonprofit entity made up of community volunteers, was tasked with working with the community to implement the 10-year Moloka'i EC Plan. The core values and principles that guide KAL/EC are:

• Sustain Moloka'i's unique rural lifestyle.
• Use Native Hawaiian culture as the foundation of Moloka'i's economic base.
• Practice the principles of responsible stewardship to protect and sustain the island's resources for generations to come.
• Practice community-driven and community-based economic development to strengthen Moloka'i's capacity for self-governance and self-determination.

Over the course of the past nine years, KAL/EC, a CBED organization, has worked with residents and community-based organizations to push ahead with 24 priority projects of more than 40 initiatives that were identified in the community's 1998 strategic plan. Additional projects were also implemented.

These initiatives are reaping benefits for the island in the areas of the environment, economic opportunity, self-governance and building a healthy community. KAL/EC funds have been used by all projects to leverage additional funding from other partners. Overall, the KAL/EC has been able to catalyze and develop more than 80 strategic partnerships and attract more than $40 million in funding to support the plan's implementation. These are highlighted below.

Beginning in 2002, KAL/EC embarked on a joint planning effort with Moloka'i Properties Ltd. (MPL) for Moloka'i Ranch's 65,000 acres. This effort would have sustained the employment of the 112 now-displaced Ranch workers. It would have also reopened the Kaluako'i Hotel, thereby creating more than 100 jobs, generating service contracts for local businesses and stimulating the island's economy.

The source of capital for this project would have been the development of 200 two-acre lots along the south and west shores of the island. In addition, MPL would have donated 26,200 acres of premier Hawaiian legacy lands to the community and protected an additional 24,950 acres under open space and agricultural easements.

Vocal opposition to the Master Plan focused narrowly on the development of the 200 two-acre lots. Despite this, the KAL/EC board endorsed the overall Community Based Master Land Use Plan. In retaliation, hard-core opponents concentrated on a bitter and slanderous propaganda campaign against KAL/EC, targeting Trustee Machado. Her re-election to the KAL/EC board was challenged with a successful all-out effort to unseat her. After the election, a board member resigned. Following established procedures, candidates with the next highest votes are appointed to fill vacancies. As Machado received the next highest votes, she was appointed to fill the position.

Moloka'i Ranch closed and the Master Plan is on hold. One positive outcome of the master-planning process was the gifting of 1,600 acres of land on the northwest coast of Moloka'i to a community land trust. In retrospect, the planning process also extended Ranch employees' jobs throughout the five-year period that it was conducted.

Personally, I was very disappointed in those who opposed the Moloka'i Ranch's plans. Their opposition, I believe, was a major determinant in the closure of the Ranch's Moloka'i operations.

The controversy surrounding Moloka'i Ranch has overshadowed the impressive and vital accomplishments of the KAL/EC. Perhaps this column can help balance this negative perception. The following outlines the major accomplishments of the KAL/EC's pioneering work.

According to Trustee Machado, it is most important for the community to heal and find the courage and compassion to work together again, proponents and opponents of the Ranch's plan, and move forward to sustain these and generate new CBED projects for Moloka'i.

Ke Aupuni Lōkahi – Enterprise Community (KAL/EC) 9 Years of Accomplishments:

SELF-GOVERNANCE

• A community land trust which has received 1,600 acres along the northwest coast of Moloka'i and a 196-acre watershed at Kawaikapu.

ECONOMY

• A community development corporation (CDC) is being incorporated and will focus on affordable homes and economic development.
• Low-interest mortgage loan funds to the first 10 homeowners in an affordable homes project.
• A community-based visitor plan for Moloka'i and visitor coordinator.
• A tractor for the Hoolehua Homestead Association's taro and farming production.
• Kūha'o Business Center to support local businesses.
• Moloka'i Slaughterhouse.

CULTURE

• Restoration of the 71-year-old historic Kalaniana'ole Hall for funeral services.
• Training in oral history and archaeological mapping of Moloka'i's historic sites.
• 'Aha Kukui O Moloka'i Canoe Club Hālau at the Mālama Cultural Park.
• Fishpond restoration projects.

HEALTHY COMMUNITY

• Support for wildfire suppression equipment and a new station.
• Kahua Ola Hou, youth substance abuse and violence intervention center.
• Exercise equipment and programs at Nā Pu'uwai fitness center.
• Water filtration system for Moloka'i's Dialysis Center.

EDUCATION

• Funding of Aka'ula private middle school.
• Education from birth to adulthood such as Tūtū and Me, Keiki Steps, Family for Real, and the annual Moloka'i Keiki Expo.
• Hooikaika Youth School-to-Work program.

ENVIRONMENT

• Northwest Erosion Control project with Hui Mālama O Mo'omomi.
• Solar water heaters for kūpuna and families.
• East Watershed Protection.