Achieving conservation objectives through production forestry: The case of Acacia koa on Hawaii Island

The future of Earth's natural capital, and the ecosystem service benefits it supplies humanity, hinges on whether conservation and restoration become economically attractive and commonplace on lands managed for profit. Sustainable forestry is a potential means of making restoration profitable; in most of the world, it remains the only way to reforest large areas while maintaining economic viability for the landowner. Here we explore the potential benefits and limitations of native tree forestry as an economically viable conservation tool in the context of a case study—koa forestry on Hawaii Island. We conducted interviews with practitioners and scientists to evaluate koa forestry as means of restoring natural capital in Hawaii. Our interviews demonstrated strong interest in the ecological and economic potential of koa, but the respondents also cited a litany of concerns. Koa's attractiveness to private landowners is hampered by a lack of silvicultural information (particularly on native trees such as koa), the challenge of balancing profit and biodiversity, wariness of government involvement, and perhaps most importantly, large upfront costs and having to wait several decades for revenue from timber harvest. Establishing new revenue streams for non-timber ecosystem services of koa forests – through government or private sector payments – could greatly enhance the attractiveness of this land use to a diverse set of landowners.