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