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Good practice Imported

Koʻolau Mountains Watershed Partnership — Corporate Water Replenishment Fence Project (Hawaiʻi, USA)

United States of America · Honolulu · See the United States of America profile · See the Honolulu profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 64% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A $200,000 Coca-Cola Foundation grant funded a 6.6-mile fence protecting 1,400 acres of native Koʻolau forest on Oʻahu from invasive species, safeguarding aquifer recharge for a system supplying over 364 million gallons of drinking water daily.

6.6 miles
Fence length
1400 acres
Forest area protected
200000 USD
Coca-Cola Foundation grant (2017)
364 million gallons/day
Daily water supply from protected aquifer system
Koʻolau Mountains Watershed Partnership — Corporate Water Replenishment Fence Project (Hawaiʻi, USA)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Dept. of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR) / Koʻolau Mountains Watershed Partnership / The Coca-Cola Company
Period
2017-present
Keywords
watershed conservation, aquifer recharge, invasive species control, corporate water stewardship, public-private partnership

Context

The Koʻolau Mountains Watershed Partnership (KMWP), founded in 1999, unites 17 landowning partners and 10 associate partners — including the State of Hawaiʻi, Kamehameha Schools, the U.S. Army and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply — to manage more than 100,000 acres of public and private land across Oʻahu's Koʻolau range, a system that supplies roughly 90% of the island's potable water through aquifer recharge.

Objectives

Protect priority native forest from invasive species to safeguard aquifer recharge for the Waiawa/Pearl Harbor aquifer system, which delivers more than 364 million gallons of water a day, in support of Hawaiʻi's state goal of protecting 30% of its priority watersheds by 2030.

Activities

In April 2017, a $200,000 Coca-Cola Foundation grant — matched by $100,000 from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and $100,000 in state watershed capital-improvement funds — financed a 6.6-mile fence enclosing 1,400 acres of priority forest (1,000 acres of Kamehameha Schools land and 400 acres of the state's ʻEwa Forest Reserve) to exclude feral pigs, goats and invasive plants.

Results

No independently published before/after data on invasive-species density or aquifer recharge specific to this fence exists. KMWP staff describe a "significant positive impact" over ten years in qualitative terms rather than with monitored metrics. The corporate-utility-state co-funding model has since been replicated by other watershed partnerships coordinated under the Hawaiʻi Association of Watershed Partnerships.

Conclusions

The fence protects a critical component of Oʻahu's aquifer-recharge infrastructure, but it is one element of a much larger, longer-running partnership rather than a standalone, separately evaluated intervention, and its specific impact has not been independently measured.

Implementation

Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — $200,000 Coca-Cola Foundation grant matched by $100,000 from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and $100,000 in state watershed capital-improvement funds (~$400,000 total for the fence project).
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Partnership founded 1999; fence project announced and funded in 2017; KMWP described a decade of qualitative positive impact by its 25th anniversary in 2024.
Staffing & skills
KMWP partnership staff, Dept. of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR), 27 landowning and associate partners (State of Hawaiʻi, Kamehameha Schools, U.S. Army, Honolulu Board of Water Supply, others)

Conditions for success

  • Corporate, utility and state co-funding routed through a standing multi-landowner partnership
  • Alignment with a public state watershed-protection target (30% by 2030)
  • Pre-existing institutional infrastructure spanning 100,000+ acres of mixed public/private land

Where it fits

Governance type
multi-stakeholder public-private partnership
Scale
watershed / island-wide (100,000+ acres)
Income level
high-income (US)

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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