Aloha! And welcome to The Kohala Center.

The Kohala Center is an independent, not-for-profit academic institute for research and education in the environmental sciences. By working at the intersection of culture, community, and science, and by respectfully engaging Hawai‘i Island’s unique natural assets as scientific and intellectual assets, The Kohala Center builds teaching and research programs that enhance Island environments and serve Island communities. The Kohala Center understands that its local work has global impact because the Island of Hawai‘i is considered by the international scientific community as a model of the world. Thus, the Island of Hawai‘i becomes a model for the world.

The Kohala Center operates in partnership with local, national, and international research and educational institutions. Among its current project partners are Hawai‘i Community College, the Edith Kanaka‘ole Foundation, the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Mano‘a, Brown University, Cornell University, the Redlands Institute, the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, among others.

The Kohala Center values the state of pono, in which individuals reach their potential, contributing their best to one another, to the community, and to the ‘aina itself, in exchange for a happy and meaningful life.