MISSION STATEMENT

The Hawaii-Pacific Islands Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (HPI-CESU), a coalition of governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations and universities, promotes research, education and technical assistance to support better stewardship of imperiled natural and cultural resources within the Pacific.

On 1 July 2004, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands became part of Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units Network, a national network which links federal land-managing agencies with universities, museums and other organizations that can provide research, training and technical expertise in managing natural and cultural resources. In many ways, the CESU concept is similar to the original PCSU but it involves a wider range of partners, both federal and nonfederal. It allows easy transfer of federal funds through cooperative agreements to individual principal investigators. The initial agreement runs for five years.

The CESU does not provide the administrative and management expertise that the PCSU does. The CESU serves more to link PIs with the needs of the agencies. The CESU has a director, webmaster and “grantsmaster” to track agreements run through the CESU. Agreements themselves are administered through the individual non-federal partners. The CESU will also continue the PCSU technical report series.

The contacts for the HPI-CESU are:

Director:  David Duffy, Tel 808-956-8218, fax 808-973-2936

Grantsmaster: Kyle Koza, Tel 808-956-2772

Webmaster : Stephanie Joe Tel 808-753-0702