Legacy plants are those native indigenous and endemic plants the Native Hawaiian culture used in their everyday survival. As species that allowed the Hawaiian culture to maintain itself sustainably for hundreds of years, many of these plants have been lost and others are now rare or becoming endangered. This is true for most extant surviving indigenous cultures today. For protection, GEF proposes to form and operate the Hawaiian Institute for Legacy Plants (HILP) to preserve, study, provide education, and make available plant resources for research purposes regarding native Hawaiian food and medicine. This is an education oriented undertaking being jointly developed by the Foundation and an

educational K-12 Hawaiian Foundation and Trust. Primary goals include constructing field plots on about 30 acres of land to house known remaining extant varieties of each medicinal and food plant species; search for potentially new strains; establish genetic fingerprints to confirm identity of all strains; establish memorandum of agreements with organizations on each island to house duplicates of the strains and make them accessible to local farmers; support education about these plants and their cultural contexts; establish internships and agreements with existing Hawaiian institutions to spread the training and knowledge about their care and production; and in general:

Establish an Institute to oversee and maintain the study, development, banking and cultural context of traditional Hawaiian heritage food and medicinal plants beginning with a few well known ones such as kalo, uala, and awa.

Develop and conduct outreach programs to bring the beneficial, cultural and health benefits of legacy heritage plants to communities across the state and throughout the nation, and to develop programs with schools to re-establish in today’s youth the appreciation and relevance of their Host Culture.

Expand Institute branches to countries like Vietnam that has 54 ethnic varieties and hundreds of endangered medicinal and edible forest plants they rely on what will soon disappear.

Given the rising controversy over bioprospecting of native legacy plants in Hawaii and elsewhere, GEF envisions being a protective oversight entity in Hawaii hosting a culturally sensitive committee assembled to protect the rights of all while allowing study to continue, and to be a model for other similar initiatives elsewhere.