Kapiʻolani Community College’s commitment to protecting Hawaiʻi’s rare and culturally significant plants is receiving a major boost thanks to a €50,000 (approximately $58,000 USD) grant from the Veolia Corporate Foundation. The funding supports Māla Māunuunu, the college’s long-standing Indigenous garden initiative dedicated to restoring and preserving the islands’ Indigenous, endemic and endangered flora.
“This grant from Veolia affirms that the work we’re doing in the māla (garden) matters,” said Kohlby Soong, Māla Māunuunu facilitator and a Kapiʻolani CC alumnus. “It gives us the chance to care for this ʻāina in a consistent, meaningful way, and to create space for students and the campus community to connect with the land and each other.”
Established in 2008, Māla Māunuunu is both a cultural learning space and a living laboratory. Students, faculty and community members engage in mālama ʻāina—traditional Hawaiian land stewardship—while learning about sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and ancestral ecological practices.
“We have to be cognizant of the history of the land, and how ancient Native Hawaiians nurtured it,” said Kapiʻolani CC Chancellor Misaki Takabayashi. “It’s important to learn what they grew, how they grew it and why that matters today.”
The grant will help Māla Māunuunu expand community engagement, preserve vital plant species and strengthen climate-resilient land care practices rooted in Native Hawaiian values—ensuring that the garden remains a thriving sanctuary for both the plants and the knowledge they embody.
Traditional ecological knowledge, modern conservation
The Veolia Corporate Foundation, which has supported community-focused, non-profit projects around the globe since 2004, recognized the international importance of Kapiʻolani CC’s work in biodiversity conservation.
“We are proud to support a project that aligns so deeply with our mission of environmental stewardship and sustainable water management,” said Veolia’s Hawaiʻi-based account manager David Vanegas-Lytle. “This initiative models how traditional ecological knowledge and modern conservation efforts can work hand in hand.”
