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When you come into Limahuli,

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you're gonna see plants that you see

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nowhere else in the world.

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All of this biodiversity is the foundation

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that Hawaiian culture was built on.

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I hear the voices of the old Hawaiians

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talking about how special this place is

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and pushing me to really
care for this place.

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(tranquil music)

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Limahuli Garden Preserve is
a 1,000 acre botanical garden

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and nature preserve
situated on the North Shore

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on the island of Kauai
in the Hawaiian islands.

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My job is to basically garner
support for our protection

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of this place and the
restoration of this valley.

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Some of the plants that we have now,

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they're so rare that you have
to go on a four mile hike

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deep into the valley or risk your life

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and climb one of those
peaks to get to them.

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One of the examples of that
is this plant called olena,

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which is the second
strongest fiber in the world.

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Now that plant is pretty rare,

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and they only exist way deep back

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in the wet valleys of the island.

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Within the context of
the Hawaiian culture,

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every plant has a name.

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When a plant goes extinct,

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that's a part of our language that dies.

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It's our job to make sure that they

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stick around for a future generation.

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So this tree right here,

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this is a really
important tree culturally.

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It's a hardwood, it's the second
hardest wood in the forest.

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Its name is uhiuhi.

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It's down to two trees left
on the island of Kauai,

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so this is one tree that you're not

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gonna really find anywhere else.

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200 years ago, all of these
plants were all around.

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The community was
actively cultivating them,

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but there's been a huge
disconnect in the past 200 years

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between the community and
the resources of the valley.

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This is actually the state flower.

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Unfortunately, our state flower is down

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to just a handful of
individuals in the wild.

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So it’s kind of a
pretty strong statement

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of the state of affairs
of our native plants.

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I can feel the rare
plants calling for help.

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We talk about sustainability nowadays.

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We don't have to reinvent the wheel.

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The ancient Hawaiians did it.

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They were doing it for
a millennium at least.

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In Hawaiian culture always
try to be at a point

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where you've given more than you've taken.

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That resource management system

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is viable in the 21st century to address

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a lot of the problems we're
dealing with nowadays.

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If we're engaging with the ocean,

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we don't just go down there and fish.

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We build fish houses so
that there's more habitat

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for the fish to live in.

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And in the forest, you go
and take care of the place,

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make sure that the plants
are healthy before you gather

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and then before you leave,

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you replant behind you so that
there's more for tomorrow.

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If you take responsibility for something,

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and then you have a right to access it.

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(tranquil music)

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Humanity doesn't have to
be separated from nature,

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and there are ways for
humanity to engage nature

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such that both benefit.

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This place can be a model.

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It can be a model of how
humanity is connected to nature

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and that is probably the most
important story in Hawaiian culture.