Understanding local pig hunter values and practices as a means toward co-management of feral pigs (Sus scrofa; pua'a) in the Hawaiian Islands

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Ecology and Society 28(2): 32 htt.psf.l� s /ar[32/ This is also an instance of hunters contributing their labor to management. The mechanism of labor might also expand access through cases in which hunters engage in stewardship opportunities with private landowners, such as restoration of invasive species and control of feral pig populations, and thus are permitted to hunt in those areas, providing food for their families. Working collectively, hunting associations could offer large landowners like ranches and farms work -trade deals, providing a steady volunteer labor force in exchange for permission to hunt on their lands. Some ranches in Hawaii already offer work -trades that have increased hunter access to feral pigs. Given recent impacts from exponentially growing Axis deer populations on the islands of Maui and Molokai (Akutagawa et al. 2016), private landowners may be more willing to develop agreements with hunters to reduce deer populations on their lands. Social relations are a key mechanism of access that could be enhanced to expand hunting of invasive species. Participants in this study described the need to enhance relationships with management agencies, as well as public perceptions of hunters, through embracing responsibility and decreasing negative practices such as trespassing, leaving trash, and opposing conservation efforts that would decrease pig populations. Management agencies can map existing public hunting areas, and how they overlap with hiking and other uses, then partner with private landowners to increase areas exclusively for hunting as well as entry points into currently designated public hunting areas. This may be dependent on the availability of funding to purchase or lease more state hunting areas. Hunter access programs are state -developed agreements with private landowners to allow public hunting on private lands in the continental U.S. (Montgomery and Blalock 2010). Relationship building with private landowners has enhanced hunting access in other locales (Miller and Vaske 2003). Landowners who perceive hunting to be low risk from a liability perspective, and see benefits from a reduction of negative impacts of ungulates on their lands, may be more likely to allow hunting on their properties (Burke et al. 2019). Our study offers examples of how considering mechanisms of access more broadly, can offer means to potentially expand opportunities to hunt and engage in management of invasive species. Integrating rights and responsibilities to meet management objectives One mechanism of access not articulated by Ribot and Peluso which is critical within Indigenous settings and articulated by participants in this study, is access through responsibility (Vaughan 2018, Diver et al. 2019). The Hawaiian value of kuleana can be defined as rights as well as responsibilities (Vaughan 2018). In Hawaii, pig hunting was affirmed as a traditional and customary right under Hawai`i's State Constitution, Article XII, Section 7 in the State v. Palama 2016 court case, involving a Hawaiian farmer and hunter as the defendant and DLNR as the plaintiff (Akutagawa et al. 2016). The court ruled that since hunting existed in Hawaii before 1892, the act of hunting pigs on private property was constitutionally protected. Although pig hunting developed primarily as a biocultural practice in the mid-19th century when domestic pigs became feral on the landscape (Luat-Hu`eu et al. 2021), the relative modernity of practice does not invalidate its legal protection as a customary right nor its importance to local and Hawaiian culture today, as cultural practices evolve over time. Yet, participants in our study recognized the integration of protected rights with responsibilities. The Akutagawa et al. (2016) study utilized interviews on the island of Molokai regarding resident perceptions of hunting as a traditional and customary right and their opinions on a potential fencing project that would exclude ungulates from one area of the island (Akutagawa et al. 2016). One participant in that study recommended building small fencing units that were easier to manage because large fences may fall into disrepair. Other residents recommended lowering the elevation of the fence lines, enlarging the size of the protected areas to better protect the health of each ahupua`a. It is noteworthy that hunters recommended modifications to improve fencing because fences as a means to control invasive species may be controversial for hunters and certain cultural practitioners (Warner and Kinslow 2013). Though not all participants in the Molokai study believed fencing was the best management solution, all acknowledged their responsibility to malama aina (care for the land). Respect for the land was also the most common responsibility articulated by hunters in our study. Recognizing informal codes of hunting conduct and standards of respect and responsibility can help to reverse negative perceptions of hunters by the public or by natural resource managers based upon the actions of a small group of unethical hunters (Adler 1995). Examples of unethical hunting include leaving trash (e.g., plastic bottles, food, unburied carcasses), poaching, being loud and rowdy, mistreating hunting dogs, or wasting meat. Participants in this study articulated responsibilities of ethical hunting including taking care of hunting dogs, prioritizing safety, respect for the animals being hunted, respecting other hunters by not following them on a trail, sharing meat with the community, and respecting the mountains in which one hunts by going quietly, minimizing trails and impact, and cleaning up after oneself and others. Articulating often unspoken codes of conduct for ethical harvest, and emphasizing responsibilities over rights, may enhance public and government support for indigenous and local resource users, strengthening their role in co -management. Reciprocal relations are another important component of Hawaiian culture that may also help to balance rights and responsibilities, while restoring community access to resources. This is a concept that "recognizes the social norms that encourage individuals to pursue environmental caretaking, and the sociopolitical factors that lead people to abdicate such responsibilities" (Diver et al. 2019:402). Eddie Ka`anana, respected elder and cultural practitioner, noted that kuleana (responsibility) is rooted in relationships with the land and how well people care for it (Vaughan 2018). Scholars have begun to understand reciprocal relations as a solution to increase and restore community access to resources. As more hunters deepen their cultural understanding of native ecosystems and formalize responsibilities to steward areas, they may increase both hunting opportunities and public support for hunting. Local communities across the Hawaiian Islands have already begun to formalize reciprocal relations for fisheries into law through formal co -management agreements with state agencies, including four different community subsistence fishing areas, which shift rule -making responsibilities to the local level and base law on indigenous and local practice (Vaughan et al.