Climate & La`au Lapa`au

The “Climate & Lāʻau Lapaʻau” project, led by Native Climate Research Fellow Gina McGuire, seeks to understand the impact of climate change on traditional Hawaiian medicine and care practices.

In Hawaiʻi, sea level rise and other climate and anthropogenic factors threaten native species and ecosystems. Species at risk include plants, animals, and minerals that are integral to the practice of lāʻau lapaʻau, Hawaiian medicine. In order to understand how environmental change is impacting the availability, distribution, and need for species identified by lāʻau lapaʻau practitioners as important to the persistence of their practice, documentation, and communication of current conditions are needed.

This project is made possible with support from DRI’s Lander Research Fund.

Project Goals

The “Climate & Lāʻau Lapaʻau” project seeks to:

1. Document species, ecosystems, growing and gathering practices important to healing communities; document reciprocal practices of stewardship and cultivation by healing communities; document common ailments being treated today; and, document other concerns, challenges, and resiliencies discussed by practitioners;
2. Produce high-resolution phenological niche projections for lapaʻau practitioner-identified species based on warming and drought projections that may inform stewardship moving forward;
3. Communicate research approaches and findings to lāʻau lapaʻau practitioners, other Indigenous communities, and the public.