Hawai'i Land Trust (formerly Hawaiian Islands Land Trust)

What happened

Hawaiʻi Land Trust (HILT) is a nationally accredited land trust based in Honolulu. Its About page says four island-based land trusts, founded in the late 1990s and early 2000s, united in 2011 to form a single organization. It states its mission as "to protect, steward, and cultivate reciprocal relationships between people and ʻāina that sustain Hawaiʻi." Its donate page lists Fed ID 99-0353223, which matches ProPublica's listing under the name Hawaiian Islands Land Trust (tax exemption issued March 2001). ʻOlu Campbell is listed as president and chief executive officer.

HILT says it focuses on protecting privately owned land with threatened natural, cultural, agricultural or community resources "by fee purchase or Conservation Easement." A fee purchase means buying the land outright; an easement is a legal agreement that limits development while the owner keeps title.

One active project on its transactions page is in Lualualei Valley on Oʻahu. HILT and Kahumana Farms are partnering to dedicate 24 acres to regenerative agriculture permanently. The page also says that when HILT works to protect a place, it engages local residents and lineal descendants and aims to let them lead.

HILT's pages do not say it is Native Hawaiian-led, so it should not be assumed to be. It is a conservation land trust, not a return of land to a Native Hawaiian nation.

Good to know. A conservation land trust, not described as Native Hawaiian-led; its work is not a return of land to a Native Hawaiian nation.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error