At the Intersection of Resident, Research and Recreation Stakeholder Interests: East Maui, Hawai‘i, as a Sustainable Tourism Destination

Abstract

The experiences of contemporary protected areas indicate adaptations to challenges brought about by resource management strategies. Resident communities, protected area management, and the tourism industry stakeholders demonstrate that evolving relationships are complex webs of competing and cooperating interests. The geographic isolation of East Maui delayed the cultural disruption of traditional practices and is an area where residents simultaneously resist assimilation and re-create cultural landscapes to offer visitors a glimpse into the past and a view of an emerging future associated with the renaissance of Native Hawaiian identity. Partnerships have brought about and nurtured the perpetuation of culture and the conservation of biodiversity as stakeholders recognize shared benefits. Among the outcomes are that residents have reconstituted the identity of East Maui as a Hawaiian place with benefits to various stakeholders, including a network of protected areas. A sustainability framework suggests a reappraisal of how to nurture, not alter, East Maui’s identity.

Keywords

• community based tourism
• cultural kipuka
• golf course development
• Hana
• Hawai‘i
• islandness
• Maui
• protected areas
• stakeholders
• sustainability framework