Seed banks have long been a method for preserving and restoring Hawaiʻi's native plants. Since 2023, a facility in Hāna, Maui has dedicated itself to nurturing the roots of native coconuts.
The reasons for preserving Hawaiʻi's coconut species are many: coconut palms are used for landscaping and food, and coconut groves across Hawaiʻi face threats like the coconut rhinoceros beetle.
The Koali Niu Coconut Gene Bank is a nonprofit that aims to preserve the cultural resource that is the coconut. Vicky Durand is the organization’s founder and treasurer, and Indrajit Gunasekara is the vice president as well as the community coconut project director for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The two Koali Niu members joined HPR to discuss why they're committed to considering — and conserving — the coconut.
“The Hawaiian niu, as well as the associated knowledge of the niu, is at a critical tipping point and will be lost,” Durand told HPR.
“So we hope to solve this issue with our gene bank, and we are the very first gene bank on Maui to find these ancient varieties that are dying out, and plant them and share the knowledge.”
Durand provides the land upon which the seed bank is nurtured, and Gunasekara provides the expertise.
“We follow an ancient pule that is known as the Pule Niu in Hawaiʻi, goes back hundreds of hundreds years,” Gunasekara said.
“‘Kupu ka niu, kupu ke kānaka’ — when the coconut grow, humanity flourish. So we follow principle. This is one of our principle: how to support the community, to lift the community, by planting coconut and bringing a practice forward.”
More information about the Koali Niu Coconut Gene Bank can be found on its website.
This story aired on The Conversation on July 23, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
