The islands make up less than one percent of U.S. land mass, but are home to more than 40% of the nation’s endangered and threatened species. A recent study found that Hawaiʻi is home to nearly one-third of the world’s plant species, including 63,280 species found nowhere else on Earth. More than 100 endemic plants have gone extinct, while 51% remain threatened. Many native plants are only found in lab environments — 273 taxa are considered to have 50 or fewer individuals remaining in the wild.
Researchers like Perlman are performing critical work to protect and restore Hawaiʻi’s native species, ecosystems, and cultural resources. But recent cuts to federal funding and shifts in protective policy threaten to undo decades of progress. The University of Hawaiʻi’s Lyon Arboretum and its Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP) work to collect, propagate, and reintroduce plants into the wild. Since 1992, the Hawaiian Rare Plant Program (HRPP), housed at the Arboretum, has focused on rescue and recovery of critically endangered native plants. There are more than 30,000 plants within its in vitro germplasm collection and greenhouse — over 70% of which are federally listed as threatened or endangered. Researchers operate with surgical precision, donning gloves and goggles and working with equipment that has been bathed in alcohol or baptized by fire. Micropropagation and cryogeneration techniques are used to prevent species loss. To date, the program has successfully grown 300 Hawaiian plant species, including 136 that are threatened or endangered.
Federal funding decisions have dogged conservation of Hawaiʻi’s most vulnerable species. “On average, mainland [birds] received over 15 times the funding of Hawaiian birds despite [having] similar priority ranks,” Dave Leonard, a wildlife biologist, wrote in the journal Biological Conservation (2008). Between 1996 and 2004, for example, the red-cockaded woodpecker received more than $11.6 million from the federal government, a sum that is more than three times the amount made available to all 31 listed Hawaiian birds combined, Leonard said.
An Associated Press analysis of 2020 data found that plants receive just 2% of the roughly $1.2 billion a year spent on endangered and threatened species. “For a tiny fraction of the budget going to spotted owls, we could save whole species of cacti that are less charismatic but have an order of magnitude smaller budget,” Leah Gerber, a professor of conservation science at Arizona State University, said. Prior funding disparities pale to the threat imposed by recent cuts to support and staffing. Three years ago, the seed conservation lab received a $250,000 federal grant to support high-resolution imaging and online access to its collection, which is one of the largest tropical seed banks in the world. The project was in its final months when researchers were informed that funding had been cut following an assessment by the Department of Government Efficiency. More recently, the Trump administration proposed a set of rules to revise Endangered Species Act regulations. Critics argue that the changes would allow economic considerations to influence species-protection decisions and accelerate development projects in areas inhabited by threatened and endangered species. The fate of Hawaiʻi’s rarest species is no longer just a biological challenge, but a political and financial one. Conservationists continue their meticulous, at times dangerous, work, but progress falters without adequate support. With federal funding cuts and regulatory rollbacks threatening years of recovery efforts, Hawaiʻi stands at a critical juncture: invest in protecting the world’s most unique ecosystems, or risk losing irreplaceable species that exist nowhere else on the planet. Comments are closed.
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