Climate Change Threatens Sacred Hawaiian Salt-Making Tradition

Preservation efforts intensify as rising sea levels, pollution, and development endanger one of Hawaii's last remaining salt patches.

Native Hawaiian families are fighting to preserve the centuries-old tradition of making salt at one of the last remaining salt patches in Hawaii, located in Hanapepe on the island of Kauai.
The sacred salt, known as 'paakai', is used in cooking, healing, rituals, and protection, and can be traded or given away, but never sold.
Climate change, pollution, and development pose significant threats to the salt patch, with rising sea levels, altered weather patterns, and pollution from a neighboring airfield among the challenges faced.
The salt-making process is laborious and can be disrupted by rainfall; in a good year, three harvests may be completed, but in recent years the season has been shortened due to above-average rainfall.
Efforts to preserve the tradition are led by Malia Nobrega-Olivera, who believes that combining Western science and Indigenous knowledge can help combat the effects of climate change and save the salt patch.