‘Feels like a miracle’: Moloka‘i nonprofit purchases fishpond, 300 acres for preservation

Nearly 300 acres of land on Molokaʻi, including a traditional fishpond, have been preserved from development after they were acquired by the nonprofit Kūpeke Ahupua‘a earlier this month.

Executive Director La‘a Poepoe, who monitors the fishpond daily, said he can finally sleep peacefully at night knowing the land the nonprofit has stewarded since 2018 is protected.

Kūpeke Ahupua‘a had been trying to raise funds to buy the fishpond since it went on the market for $2 million in August. Thanks to donations, it bought the land on the island’s east end for $1.5 million in a sale that closed Jan. 15.

Poepoe said the nonprofit made the purchase not just for itself but so “everybody could rest assured that this would be held in conservation and preservation.”

Corcoran Pacific Properties announced the sale on social media last week. Listing agent Jeanne Dunn said finding comparable properties to set the pricing for was difficult for a property of this size, and that the land does not come with connection to water.

Dunn said she was happy to see the land remain in conservation for the Moloka’i community.

The purchase covers 12 parcels, including the 33.8-acre fishpond valued at $83,000. The largest parcel in the listing is 253.8 acres, valued at $421,900, according to Maui County property tax records. Both are owned by Namahana Buchanan Estate, Buena Ventura Properties and Clifton Steward; several other parcels are owned by the family of the late Stanwood Buchanan Formes.

For years, Formes had allowed Lori Buchanan and her husband, who is a descendant of Namahana Buchanan but not an heir to the estate, to look after the fishpond. It was a task they entrusted to Poepoe, whose father trained him in lawai‘a, traditional fishing practices.

The Buchanans had hoped Formes would sell them the fishpond eventually, but before they could strike a deal, he died in 2018. Members of his family reached an agreement in 2019 that included asking the court to appoint a special master to sell all of the remaining real property in Hawai’i, according to court documents. 

Kūpeke Ahupua‘a — which includes the Buchanans, Poepoe and his wife Mahina Poepoe, a state representative, and Kawehi Soares, a cultural practitioner — was eager to purchase and protect the land.

Poepoe said they started working with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land to apply for government funding. They put in an application to the Legacy Lands Conservation Commission and hosted a site visit at the fishpond for the commission.  

Reyna Ramolete-Hayashi, project manager for the Trust for Public Land’s Aloha ‘Āina program, said the struggle with seeking public funding is that the process is more complicated than it is for a private buyer. She said it can take nine months to get an appraisal, hold a site visit, present the request to the commission and get public testimony before the funds can be approved and released. 

Kūpeke Ahupua‘a didn’t have that kind of time, and La’a Poepoe said they couldn’t make the sellers wait while they gathered the money. He had been hoping that donors would come through, making the case with connections in conservation circles. 

“Everybody was cheering us on, hoping we could get the money,” he said. 

When the nonprofit was finally able to get donors who helped them make the purchase, the nonprofit’s small team was thrilled. 

Lori Buchanan, who serves as an advisory resource to the Kūpeke Ahupua‘a board, said it won’t sink in until she can put her feet into the sand of the fishpond. On Moloka’i, about 55,000 acres, or roughly a third of the island, is owned by a foreign company that has been trying to sell the land since 2017 at a price of $260 million. Community members have been trying to raise the funds on their own to buy it.

“That is always hurtful, I think, to our community when as Hawaiians and as local people, we see foreign investment come in and purchase up, because it changes the landscape and it impacts culture to its core,” Buchanan said. 

“And so right now, it hasn’t sunk in that we actually pulled it off. … Little baby steps like this, where we are able to set aside lands in perpetuity from development and foreign ownership is the goal. And it’s so awesome.” 

Buchanan also sees hope in places like Hāna where the nonprofit Ke Ao Hāli’i has steadily been acquiring land along the coast with the help of the county, state and Hawai’i Land Trust to protect it from development in perpetuity.

Ramolete-Hayashi said the Kūpeke Ahupua‘a purchase is a rare situation. The Trust for Public Land helps government agencies and nonprofits navigate the complicated process of buying land, and at times it will step in and make the purchase if the funding isn’t ready in time to take the property off the market. But she said it’s a big risk for the trust to do that when the money isn’t guaranteed. 

“In those circumstances, there’s just no way,” she said. “Conservation real estate just moves at a different timeline. It’s very hard for us to respond in situations like that where you’re competing with a cash offer.” 

The Aloha ‘Āina program focuses specifically on helping Native Hawaiian communities acquire and protect land, with success stories including the 3,433-acre Kamehamenui Forest Reserve on Maui and the 102-acre Alakoko Fishpond on Kaua’i. She said it “feels like a miracle” to see a group like Kūpeke Ahupua‘a that includes lineal descendants get to take ownership of the land they care for. 

“We just can’t wait to see what they’re able to do,” Ramolete-Hayashi said. “And to see that land protected for future generations, especially given all of the development that’s already happened along that coastline, I mean, there’s no price tag for that, right?” 

Kūpeke Fishpond is one of nearly 75 along the Moloka’i coastline, according to a 1990 study by Bishop Museum and DHM Inc. State officials say there is no database of active or historic fishponds.

Poepoe, who’s watched the rural shoreline transition from “beach shacks” to million-dollar homes over the years, said he knows they “just bought major chores.” He said the plan is to continue to monitor the fishpond and do maintenance that includes repairing the rock walls damaged by the 2011 Japan tsunami and removing some of the invasive plants. The goal is not to make it a place where people can fish but a sanctuary for replenishing the fish stocks in the ocean, he said. 

On the more than 250 acres that they’ll be stewarding mauka of the fishpond, they also hope to tackle invasive species. Buchanan, who is also the project coordinator for the Moloka‘i/Maui Invasive Species Committee, said their work will focus on “passive restoration,” which involves removing threats like deer or pigs that can create erosion downhill, as well as weeds and invasive plants that choke out the native species. 

She said it’s an “economically feasible” method of land management and imagines Moloka‘i being a haven for native plants that could provide seeds for Lahaina in its recovery from the 2023 wildfires or other areas of Hawai’i where development and invasive species have driven out native ones. 

The nonprofit also plans to seek grants and other funding to help support its work. It is better equipped to do so now that it owns the land. Poepoe said: “That’s more than half the battle right there.”