Hoʻihoʻi Maunawili

Returning Maunawili to the hands and hearts of the community

For generations, Maunawili has fed has fed our community’s body and spirit, has sustained native ecosystems, and has shared the stories of our ancestors. Today, we have the opportunity to ensure that Maunawili isn’t just protected, it thrives. Hoʻokuaʻāina, Kauluakalana, Hawaiʻi Land Trust, and the Trust for Public Land are working together to raise $500,000 to build a momentum that will ensure perpetual stewardship of these lands for the benefit of our community.

Your kōkua will mālama these storied places, reconnect the community, and inspire generations to come.

Join us! Make a gift today, share our story, mālama ʻāina.

In partnership:

 
 

About the Effort

In the heart of Maunawili, Oʻahu, two storied lands—Pālāwai and Makaliʻi—are being returned to community care. Fed by wai ʻolu lipo (lush, dark, exhilarating waters), these fertile places have sustained generations through loʻi kalo, native forests, and deep interdependence between people and ʻāina. For decades, our community has fought to protect this ʻāina from development and restore it for shared use and cultural renewal. Now, for the first time, that vision is within reach.

Maunawili’s waters are poised to once again feed, heal, and reconnect the people of Kailua, just as they did for generations. For over a decade, Trust for Public Land has partnered with Hui Maunawili Kawainui, a coalition of nonprofits and generational ‘ohana, to purchase and permanently protect this land. Once acquired, ownership will be returned to community hands: Hoʻokuaʻāina will care for Pālāwai, and Kauluakalana will care for Makaliʻi. These trusted nonprofits bring deep experience in ʻāina restoration, education, and cultural revitalization. Both places will be forever protected through conservation easements co-held by Hawaiʻi Land Trust and the City and County of Honolulu.

This moment is about more than conserving land. It is about investing in a shared future where ʻāina and people thrive together. Through community care, Pālāwai and Makaliʻi will be restored into living, working landscapes—streams and springs will be restored, loʻi kalo replanted, and connection rekindled between people and place.

By supporting this campaign, you are investing not just in land, but in people. Your gift will ensure that the future of Maunawili reflects the wisdom and abundance of its past.  Campaign proceeds will be shared equally among the four partners, supporting both the protection of these lands and their long-term care for generations to come.

Now is the moment to return Maunawili’s wai ʻolu lipo to community hands. Join us.

COMMUNITY VISION FOR MAUNAWILI

  • Maintain community character and wellbeing.

    • Strengthen community health and resilience through culturally grounded, place-based stewardship that nurtures reciprocal relationships between people, ʻāina, and identity.

  • Restore native habitat, revive Maunawili’s waters, and protect coastal health.

    •  Restore and revitalize ecological systems across the ahupuaʻa, including revive the watershed, native species, and soil health to ensure the flourishing of both land and people for generations to come.

  • Improve food security.

    • Develop a diversified, community-led agricultural model to fortify Hawaiʻi’s food systems while promoting holistic health across the Koʻolau moku and beyond.

  • Revive traditional practices and protect cultural sites.

    • Need something here.

Maunawili stream as it winds down from the Koʻolau.