The Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC) initiated the Hawaiian Islands Terrestrial Adaptation Initiative (HITAI) in FY2015 to ensure that the main Hawaiian Islands have plans and systems in place by 2019 to address expected impacts to island ecosystems, heritage sites and structures, and communities from climate change and other local environment changes. There are a number of conservation group stakeholders implicated in the development of the HITAI, and the fundamental purpose of the project presented here is to ensure that these conservation organizations are best equipped to work together efficiently and productively to carry out the HITAI. Because the stakes are high and the organizations varied in both their legal, political, and operating relationships with each other and the communities of Hawai`i, this project is needed to allow all stakeholders to manage expectations, understand responsibilities and resources available, identify overlaps, surface potential areas of friction, and explore solutions to hurdles that might prevent the development and implementation of the best possible adaptation strategy.
This type of project can best be described as an organizational design and stakeholder mapping engagement. At its highest level, the overarching goal of the project is to ensure that neither a lack of institutional awareness nor institutional friction are impediments to the development of an actionable adaptation plan for Hawai`i. As noted in the notice of funding opportunity, this organization diagnostic parallels a separate information needs assessment analysis that the HITAI is already undertaking. These two pieces together will provide the analytical and organizational design foundations to maximize the chances of the HITAI’s success.
The objectives of the project are a series of analyses and convenings intended to ensure that we can identify barriers to efficient and successful operation of the HITAI and problem solve ways to overcome those barriers. These objectives, and their associated activities, are described in greater detail within. The ultimate outcome is an efficient, transparent, network organization where members are accountable to one another and agree on ownership of solutions and a path forward. Because climate change poses enough challenges, this project will push for a meaningful set of agreements and processes to limit the risks that administrative friction or inertia (i.e. human factors) undermine the chances of dealing with the adaptation needs of the Hawaiian Islands.
