HONOLULU (AP). The Hawaii Tourism Authority awarded grants to several local environmental-cultural organizations in an effort preserve natural areas, and to increase the role for Native Hawaiians in the sector.
After cutting grants last year due a pandemic budget constraint, the agency recently awarded over $3 million through its Kukulu Ola grant and Aloha Aina grant. Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has partnered with the Hawaii Community Foundation to distribute money to more than a dozen organisations.
The funding will allow for the construction of a Hawaiian house on Oahu trust lands, the restoration of a traditional fishpond system on Maui and the commissioning a mural depicting a Native wahine, the Hawaiian term for woman, on Kauai.
The tourism authority is promoting Hawaii as a destination where people can enjoy more sustainable forms of tourism that place an emphasis on local and Indigenous culture and the preservation or restoration of natural areas.
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