Ahupuaʻa (Hawaiian watershed management)
Ahupuaʻa (gestión de cuencas hawaiana)
- Date
- c. century XVI (tradición) · confidence low
- Place
- Oʻahu Island, Hawaii, United States
- Credited to
- Hawaiian aliʻi and communities; tradition attributed to Māʻilikūkahi
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A division of territory into strips running from the mountain to the reef, so each community has forest, irrigated crops, fishponds and fishing. It apportions the resources of a watershed and regulates their use through ritual rules (kapu).
Tradition attributes it to the aliʻi nui Māʻilikūkahi of Oʻahu, around the 16th century; archaeology suggests watershed-based organisation from c. 1400. The date is approximate.
What it led to
- village cooperation to maintain ditches, ponds and forests
- support of a Hawaiian population estimated in the hundreds of thousands
- inspiration for present-day integrated watershed management in Hawaii