Bishop Museum Congratulates the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference on its 30th Anniversary

# Bishop Museum Congratulates the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference on its 30th Anniversary

Museum staff have been involved with the Conference since the 1990s, and will be presenting at the 2023 Conference from Tuesday, June 27-Thursday, June 29.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum congratulates the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference on its 30th Anniversary, and will be presenting at the 2023 Conference from Tuesday, June 27-Thursday, June 29.

The Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference, an annual event organized by the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance, gathers a diverse group of scientists, policymakers, conservation practitioners, educators, students, and community members from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific to discuss conservation, with the common goal of caring for the Earth's natural resources. This year's theme, "Aia i hiʻikua, i hiʻialo," interpreted for the Conference as "Reflecting on Our Past; Dreaming on Our Future," especially resonates with Bishop Museum staff, who have been involved with the Conference since its origins in the 1990s.

"Bishop Museum has been a member of the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance (HCA) since its establishment in 1988, and our scientists had a hand in organizing the first Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference in 1993," said Dr. Allen Allison, Bishop Museum director of natural sciences and curator of vertebrate zoology. "Bishop Museum's and the HCA's missions are aligned in that both have worked to preserve and protect our islands' precious biodiversity, which is at a critical point in time in Hawaiʻi's history."

"Hawaiʻi is known for its beautiful native flora and fauna, but it's also known as the 'endangered species capital of the world,'" explained Allen. "With the increasing loss of species and thus biodiversity, our already fragile ecosystems are threatened, which in turn threatens all of life on Earth — including humans. The Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference presents the opportunity for our scientists and researchers to share knowledge and engage with other like-minded supporters and practitioners of conservation, with the literal goal of saving life as know it."

Bishop Museum's participation in the 2023 Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference includes presentations on freshwater snails, and kāhuli and other endemic Hawaiian snails; the restoration of native ecosystems; social attraction for endangered seabirds on Maui; and other topics pertaining to conservation and the importance of biodiversity.

The full conference schedule can be found on the event's website, and registration is open to the public with discounts for educators and nonprofit organizations.

"This is the first in-person Conference being held since the pandemic, and Bishop Museum congratulates the HCA on 30 years of this important event. We'd also like to thank Dr. Ken Kaneshiro of the University of Hawaiʻi for his leadership and support of HCA during the past 30 years," said Allen. "By continuing to come together to share knowledge and perspectives, and through collaboration and partnerships, we hope to get ahead of biodiversity loss and take active steps in the preservation of our native ecosystems."

Bishop Museum's efforts to identify and preserve biodiversity

In 1992, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature designated Bishop Museum as The Hawaiʻi Biological Survey (HBS), a program tasked with documenting the more than 23,000 species of plants, animals, and other organisms found throughout the Hawaiian archipelago. As a result of this initiative, Hawaiʻi was the first and only state in the U.S. with a complete checklist of the approximately 17,000 terrestrial, 500 freshwater, and 5,500 marine species of plants and animals found in our islands. Bishop Museum also conducts extensive expeditions for biodiversity discovery and documentation across the Pacific, a program designated the Pacific Biological Survey (PBS). Together, these strategic initiatives are a cornerstone of the Museum's biodiversity discovery and documentation efforts.

The data from the HBS and PBS are used by Museum research staff in conjunction with collaborative partners throughout the Pacific to develop analytical tools needed to assess overall status and trends in abundance, health, and distribution of plants and animals, as well as the ecosystems upon which humans rely. Together, these efforts aim to manage and protect the areas of highest biological and cultural significance in the face of threats from climate change and biodiversity loss.

Each of Bishop Museum's natural history collections contributes to HBS, providing specimens, expert knowledge, staffing for fieldwork, and management of the collected specimens to preserve the records and diversity effectively. Together, the Museum's staff conducts a coordinated inventory and monitoring program that provides the data needed to assess the overall status and trends in the abundance, health, and distribution of plants and animals, as well as the ecosystems upon which they depend.