More trees will be coming to various parts of the islands, possibly bringing millions of dollars to Hawaiʻi.
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture program aims to boost agroforestry with its Climate-Smart Commodities initiative. The agency is investing more than $3 billion in 141 projects nationwide.
A portion of that will fund the Expanding Agroforestry Project, a national program with a goal of adding 30,000 new acres of agroforestry across 30 states.
About $6 million from that program is coming to Hawaiʻi. It will go to a partnership between The Nature Conservancy and the Hawaiʻi Ulu Cooperative as incentive payments to grow more trees over the next five years.
And while the Hawaiʻi Ulu Cooperative itself is focused on breadfruit trees, aid will not be limited to breadfruit growers. Eligible projects could include those that add trees to otherwise open grazing land, or that use trees as windbreaks to protect soil and water resources, among other purposes.
HUC's agroforestry manager Chris Ka‘iakapu told Pacific Business News that, “Good candidates are farmers or beginning farmers who have at least one acre available to install new agroforestry systems.”
