New conservation framework helps guide critical decisions for Maui forest birds and other endangered species

A new framework designed to guide one of the hardest decisions in conservation—whether to move a species outside its historical range to save it from extinction—has been published in Conservation Science and Practice, capping a multi-year, Pacific-wide effort in which the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa played a central supporting role.

The framework helps managers to decide whether a “conservation introduction” that moves a plant or animal outside its historic range is the right call, and how to do it responsibly. 

Professor Melissa Price with CTAHR’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management and a co-author of the paper, served as a co-principal investigator alongside lead investigator Mark W. Schwartz of the University of California, Davis and the US Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Region. Price, UH Mānoa graduate students and others helped facilitate community engagement, gathering input from more than 250 people across the Pacific region.

Years of conservation, community discussions

“This framework is the product of years of conversations with the people who actually do this work: biologists, cultural practitioners, Tribal and Indigenous community members, land managers, and agency staff across an enormous and diverse region,” said Price. “UH Mānoa’s role was to help make sure that engagement was real, not a formality, and that the framework reflected the full range of perspectives and places it’s meant to serve.”

That place-based, relationship-first approach sets the framework apart from earlier tools. It is built around considering cultural and community values alongside ecological risk. 

“For Hawaiian forest birds, we don’t have the luxury of waiting until we have perfect information to make difficult decisions,” said Hanna Mounce, coordinator of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project. “We are often making high-stakes decisions under a lot of uncertainty, and this framework gives us a way to work through those decisions thoughtfully and transparently, while making sure the right people are part of the conversation.”  

Learn more

Community members interested in learning more are invited to a panel discussion on conservation introductions and forest bird translocations in the Hawaiian Islands at the NREM Departmental Research Seminar on Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 4 p.m., hosted by CTAHR in the St. John Plant Science Laboratory, Room 011, 3190 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822. 

The panel will feature Hanna Mounce with the Maui Nui Forest Bird Recovery Project, Megan Laut with USFWS, and Lucas Fortini from the US Geological Survey.