Schatz: More Than $68 Million In New Federal Funding Heading To Hawai‘i To Improve Climate, Disaster Resilience, Restore Coral Reefs, Native Hawaiian Fishponds

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz today announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded $68.4 million in federal funding to the University of Hawai?i Sea Grant College Program, which will work in partnership with a dozen groups spanning government, nonprofits, academia, and local stewards. The new award is through the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and will be used to help improve climate and disaster resilience across the state.

“This new federal funding – part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investment in climate action – will restore critical watersheds and forests and utilize Native Hawaiian knowledge and practices to help move us to more a sustainable, climate resilient future for Hawai‘i,” said Senator Schatz.

The new funding will help be used to help conserve and restore watersheds and forests, build natural infrastructure to protect communities and habitat, restore Native Hawaiian fishponds, limu, and coral reefs to reinvigorate habitat, and help reduce risk and improve disaster resilience by establishing new green infrastructure projects and building capacity within at-risk communities, among other things.

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