As recently as 2002, a full 25 percent of Hawaii's native plants were designated as either threatened or rare. Nearly half of the officially endangered plants in the United States are found only in Hawaii. The pressures from farming, illegal harvesting by greenhouses, and development mean legal protections for these plants are critical to prevent their extinction. Many Hawaiian plants can't be found anywhere else in the world, which makes conservation efforts even more important. If these plants go extinct in Hawaii, they will disappear from the earth.
The Natural Area Reserve Fund (NARF) contributes funds towards conservation on many of the large Hawaiian Islands. This fund invests in two strategies: protecting endangered plants in their natural environment as well as encouraging the growing of rare plants in government-approved greenhouses. This two-pronged approach gives the best chance of keeping these plants from extinction.
The legal cultivation of rare plants from greenhouses plays a major role in conservation in Hawaii. Many of the endangered plants are cultivated in the greenhouse both for replanting in their natural environments on the island and also for creating seeds for future plantings. The NARF even offers some exotic plant auctions to help raise funds by selling some of the greenhouse cultivated plants, and those funds go back into furthering the conservation efforts.
Each Hawaiian Island contains its own distinct environment and this also leads to island-specific challenges with conservation. Oahu, for example, contains 27 endangered plant species that are believed to include only 50 individual plants or less. Kauai boasts several protected parks, all of which require supervision, maintenance and funding to protect the rare plants.
