Cooperative Extension agents and specialists in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) are in a critical position to improve food security, ecosystem services, and local livelihoods in the face of climate change due to their expertise and client-based relationships. However, there has been little systematic effort to increase the knowledge of climate science or climate change mitigation and adaptation among Cooperative Extension faculty in the Pacific region. The Hawaii Extension Climate Forum was designed to engage Cooperative Extension faculty in critical dialogue about the impacts of climate change on agriculture and natural resources in Hawaii. The goals of the Climate Forum were to provide foundational knowledge of climate science and regional climate change impacts and to identify opportunities to integrate climate change adaptation, mitigation, and communication into extension programming. This report summarizes the key outputs and learning outcomes from Climate Forum and provides the curriculum and detailed summaries of Forum activities as Appendices. More than 45 people participated in the event, primarily from CTAHR extension, but also from other agencies including NOAA, Hawaii SeaGrant, USDA Forest Service, the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative). The Climate Forum curriculum delivered presentations by subject matter experts on climate science, downscaled climate projections for Hawaii, and climate adaptation and communication in Extension. Facilitated discussions characterized current climate-related knowledge and concerns among CTAHR Extension faculty, the usefulness and limitations of available resources and tools, and the challenges and opportunities for integrating climate-related information into agents’ and specialists’ programs. In general, participants acknowledged the client networks and existing expertise across Extension as valuable assets, but that access to and availability of climate-related resources and experts were limited within CTAHR. Another key challenge was identifying the linkages between long-term benefits of climate adaptation and short-term benefits that would increase adoption by clients. In addition, there is a need to link climate change effects to local, extension-related issues such as crop production, disease, and water and soil conservation. All participants indicated the Climate Forum inspired them to incorporate climate change into their existing programs. The post-event survey also indicated significant increases in knowledge of climate science and confidence in communicating climate science among participants in the Forum. In terms of moving forward, participants suggested increasing the availability of climate-related educational materials such extension publications and videos, providing a central website to host climate-related resources, and to workshop relevant research needs. Finally, 87% of participants agreed it would be useful to have a climate-focused CTAHR faculty position to support the integration of climate science into Extension programming.
