Bishop Museum and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Partner to Safeguard Hawaiʻi’s Endangered Species Through Global Biobanking Network

# Bishop Museum and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Partner to Safeguard Hawaiʻi's Endangered Species Through Global Biobanking Network

New partnership for building capacity in Hawaiʻi to protect biodiversity and cultural heritage

Honolulu, Hawaiʻi — Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai'i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, in collaboration with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), announces a landmark partnership to expand biobanking* capacity in Hawai'i and across the Pacific to protect the islands' unique biodiversity and cultural heritage.

*Biobanking is the process of collecting, processing, storing, and distributing biological samples (including living cell lines) and associated data for research purposes, and is a vital tool for biodiversity conservation.

The partnership, unveiled at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, places Hawaiʻi at the center of an ambitious global movement to expand biobanking to all endangered species by 2075. The partnership includes three other facilities in Kenya, Vietnam, and Peru, all biodiversity hotspots** — effectively creating a global biobanking network.

**Areas with significant levels of biodiversity threatened with high levels of extinction.

The partnership leverages more than a century of Bishop Museum leadership in Pacific collections, research, and community engagement, along with SDZWA's pioneering Frozen Zoo®, the world's most comprehensive wildlife biobank. Together, the institutions will train local conservationists, expand facilities, and safeguard the legacy of Hawaiʻi's most imperiled species, from rare forest birds to the ancient kāhuli (Hawaiian land snails).

"Hawaiʻi is home to some of the most endangered species on Earth, many found nowhere else," said Dr. Norine W. Yeung, Bishop Museum curator of Malacology. "Biobanking represents both a scientific and cultural commitment: it ensures that future generations will not only inherit the legacy of these species but also the ʻike (knowledge) and moʻolelo (stories) tied to them."

With support from SDZWA, Bishop Museum is advancing biobanking initiatives through its Pacific Center for Molecular Biodiversity (PCMB), soon expanding to include the Waihona Ola Pacific Biobank, which houses more than 95,000 samples of Pacific biodiversity. This collaboration will further biobanking efforts to include living cell lines, tissues, and reproductive materials, critical tools for future restoration and conservation.

"Protecting biodiversity in Hawaiʻi is inseparable from protecting cultural heritage," said Dr. Kenneth A. Hayes, Bishop Museum director of the Pacific Center for Molecular Biodiversity. "Every species stored in the biobank represents not only an evolutionary lineage millions of years in the making, but also a relationship between people and place that we have a kuleana (responsibility) to safeguard."

This announcement coincides with the 50th anniversary of SDZWA's Frozen Zoo®, which has led global innovation in wildlife biobanking since 1975.

"Biobanking efforts provide hope by increasing species' resiliency, which benefits both people and nature," said Dr. Nadine Lamberski, Chief Conservation Science and Wildlife Health Officer for San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. "By linking Hawaiʻi's biobanking initiatives to a global network of distributed repositories, Bishop Museum and SDZWA are ensuring that the Pacific plays a vital role in safeguarding Earth's living heritage for generations to come."

About the Waihona Ola Pacific Biobank

Waihona Ola ("repository of life") is a Bishop Museum-led initiative to safeguard the Pacific's unique biodiversity through the cryogenic preservation of DNA, tissues, cells, and reproductive materials. With more than 95,000 samples representing species across the Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific, Waihona Ola provides critical resources for conservation, ecological restoration, and cultural perpetuation in the face of unprecedented biodiversity loss.