Puanani Anderson-Fung

Board Member

Puanani’s ambition is to contribute significantly to conservation, restoration, and perpetuation of native Hawaiian and Polynesian plants, ecosystems, and culture. The means she uses to effect change are: research in ethnobotany, ecology, and historical Polynesian linguistics; community service; and public education. She believes that how we humans treat nature is the combined effects of: (1) our beliefs and values; (2) practices and traditions; (3) environmental attributes, experiences, and knowledge. Her research helps to strengthen our understanding of both current and ancestral Polynesian (PN) environmental knowledge and practice. She believes that understanding the interconnections between ecosystems and cultures, within a historical context, is key to the futures of both, and leads to the best indigenous resource management (IRM) decisions.