Scientists estimate that the 2020s are the defining decade for our climate future. In Hawai‘i, we work with nature because it is the most promising and cost-effective solution to address this challenge. We call this Natural Climate Solutions.
We apply nature-based solutions from mauka to makai, charting a course toward greater resilience and sustainability. We leverage cutting-edge technologies to unlock solutions to some of our greatest challenges, such as our efforts to save our native honeycreepers by crashing mosquito populations.
With efforts like the development of the world’s first coral reef digital twin, created by a multi-agency group through research conducted at TNC’s Palmyra Atoll Preserve, we are working to assist and empower coastal communities worldwide to safeguard their natural resources and the lives and livelihoods that depend upon them. This is just one example of how Palmyra Atoll allows us to study, understand, and predict climate change impacts, while developing solutions that can be applied globally.
In Hawaiʻi, it’s in our nature to protect what matters.
How We Tackle Climate Impacts
To bolster our ability to adapt to climate change, we will:
- Innovate Solutions: Explore and implement new techniques to build nature’s resilience in the face of climate change.
- Drive Scientific Discovery: Catalyze cutting-edge climate research and share advances from our work.
- Amplify Impact: Elevate successes that inspire hope, drive action and increase public and private investment in climate projects.
Innovating Solutions
At TNC, we’re exploring and implementing innovative techniques to strengthen the resilience of ecosystems. From restoring native forests and coral reefs to piloting adaptive land and marine management strategies, our work is grounded in science and guided by community.
Coral Restoration: Members of the Hawai‘i Emergency Reef Restoration Network reattaching corals on Hawaiʻi island. © DLNR
West Hawaiʻi: Divers monitor coral reefs. © David Slater
Community Fishpond: Lehua Sandy Kamaka at the fishponds at Kiholo Bay. Kamaka is a Hoa ʻāina member with Hui Aloha Kiholo. © TNC
Monk Seal: A monk seal lounging on a beach with a double rainbow in the background. © Kenwei Chong
Safeguarding Hawaiʻi’s Vanishing Forest Birds
Warming temperatures brought on by climate change are allowing mosquitoes to move up in elevation into formerly safe havens, where they are spreading avian malaria to birds that are already on the brink of extinction. Just one bite can kill these birds.
Scientists agree that our best hope—one that can meet the scale and the pace of the threat—is reducing mosquito populations as quickly as possible. TNC is working with partners to deploy an innovative technology called Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT), where non-biting male mosquitoes are bred in a lab with a naturally occurring bacteria that renders them sterile so that when they are released in our preserves and mate with females, the eggs will not hatch, causing the populations to crash.
We are in the first year of implementing this method on Maui and in trials on Kauaʻi.
Driving Scientific Discovery
In the face of a rapidly changing climate, TNC is advancing bold, science-driven solutions. Through cutting-edge research, we’re making discoveries that inform global climate resilience while protecting some of the planet’s most unique ecosystems. By sharing our findings and collaborating with partners, we’re turning knowledge into action.
The World’s First Digital Reef
What makes reefs healthy in a changing climate? TNC worked with partners to develop a tool to help answer that question: the "digital twin” is a four-dimensional virtual replica of a reef that allows scientists to virtually test potential restoration actions.
The team developed the first digital twin using Palmyra’s coral reefs. Palmyra was selected as the ideal location to start this work due to the abundance of existing scientific data and the variety of reef conditions from near-pristine areas to sites extremely degraded from WWII.
The tool allows users to try things out within the model, such as planting corals to see where currents spread their larvae, and then selecting the best locations based on optimal dispersal. This knowledge can then inform the methods that will yield the best results for restoring reefs.
This kind of knowledge and technology developed by TNC and our partners will assist and empower coastal communities worldwide to safeguard their reefs and the lives and livelihoods that depend upon them.
Quote: Dr. Eric Conklin
It’s so easy to find stories of doom and gloom with a changing climate, [but] we see Palmyra as a story of hope. It inspires us every day about the true power of nature.
Amplifying Impact with Natural Climate Solutions
We are seeing more frequent and severe storms, fires and flooding around the world. And with them, astounding loss—of lives, homes, neighborhoods and wildlife habitat. Sediments and nutrients flow into fresh water supplies and oceans—all at ever-increasing costs to our health, security and economy. When it comes to climate change, time is not on our side.
Working with nature is the most promising and cost-effective solution. Natural climate solutions can reduce a third of climate impacts and include conservation, restoration and management actions that increase carbon storage in landscapes, wetlands and seascapes to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Nature-based solutions also build resilience in the systems that protect us from the impacts of climate change, such as coral reefs and wetlands that protect our coastal infrastructure and communities from storm surge and flooding.
Palmyra Research Station
We are leveraging Palmyra Atoll's unique position as the world’s most accessible highly protected area with very few human impacts to foster invaluable partnerships and develop conservation insights for the globe. Click on the photos to learn more.
Palmyra Forests: This picture shows an example of the project's goal: a healthy native rainforest. © Andrew Wright
Underwater waves Palmyra reef : Underwater waves on reef at Palmyra © TNC/Kydd Pollock
dFAd on Palmyra Atoll: A drifting Fish Aggregation Device (dFAD) as seen on Palmyra Atoll. © Hannah Martin/TNC
Palmyra Divers: A marine monitoring and research team studies coral reefs and reef life at Palmyra Atoll. © Tim Calver
Palmyra Atoll: Seabirds with decoys designed to attract them back to the atoll. © TNC
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