Inside the battle to save the 'last Hawaiian island'

2023-07-18

Inside the battle to save the ‘last Hawaiian island’: Molokai residents fight to buy $260 million 55,575-acre ranch from Hong Kong firm that left it to rot and blocked beach access

Molokai Ranch was bought by Hong Kong investment firm Guoco Group in 2005 but abandoned in 2008 when its plans to develop luxury properties on the shoreline was met with opposition
Activists and non-profit organizations have made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to buy back the land for local access

Local activists are fighting to reclaim access to a $260 million ranch on the island of Molokai after the Hong Kong investment firm that owns it locked up the beaches and left the buildings to rot for more than a decade.

Activists and non-profit organizations, such as Molokai Heritage Trust, have made repeated attempts to buy back the land but all their past proposals have been unsuccessful.

Now activists are organizing protest marches to reclaim their traditional rights to the land for access to cultural and historical sites as well as subsistence fishing and hunting.

Such rights rights are protected by Article 12, Section 7 of the Hawaii Constitution.

Molokai is known by locals as ‘the last Hawaiian island’ as it has resisted much of the commercial developments, such as high-rise hotels and parking lots, that have plagued others in the archipelago.

The ranch, which encompasses more than 55,000 acres, has been abandoned for more than a decade

Local activists are fighting to reclaim access to a $260 million ranch on the island of Molokai

Activists and non-profit organizations, such as Molokai Heritage Trust, have made repeated attempts to buy back the land

Molokai Ranch was bought by Hong Kong investment firm Guoco Group in 2005 which is in turn a part of the Hong Leong Group, a conglomerate in Malaysia, founded by billionaire businessmen.

The ranch, which encompasses more than 55,000 acres of stunning island land was developed to incorporate a high-end lodge, glamping resort, a restaurant, golf course and the island’s only movie theater.

However, the firm shut down its operations on the island in 2008 after its plans to build 200 luxury homes along the shoreline of Laau Point was met with fierce resistance from the local population.

In May more than 100 island residents when their access to the only road leading to Kawakiu Beach was obstructed by a newly installed locked gate.

The protesters, waving native flags and signs, cut the lock and proceeded down to the pristine beach.

‘The march was there because they took away our hard-fought access rights for Hawaiians,’ Walter Ritte, a long-time Native Hawaiian activist and Molokai resident told SFGATE.

‘They’re making the town of Maunaloa suffer,’ Ritte said.

‘They closed the hotel and put sand in the swimming pool. They closed the golf course, cut the coconut trees and used that to prevent access to the old golf courses.

The protesters, waving native flags and signs, cut bypassed a locked gate and proceeded down to Kawakiu Beach

Guoco Group shut down its operations on the island in 2008 after its plans to build 200 luxury homes along the shoreline of Laau Point was met with fierce resistance

The ranch, which encompasses more than 55,000 acres of stunning island land was developed to incorporate a range of commercial buildings

The land was originally owned by the Hawaiian monarchy before it was bought by a businessman for sugar cane production in 1897

Molokai is known by locals as ‘the last Hawaiian island’ as it has resisted much of the commercial developments that have plagued others in the archipelago

‘The response is really negative and then they decided, “OK, well we’re going to just sell this place and get out of here”‘ Ritte explained.

Molokai Properties Limited, the local subsidiary of Guoco Group told SFGATE in a statement that ‘the gate is in place to deter unauthorized hunting vehicles from accessing lands in potential conflict with ongoing, registered hunts.

Allowing unregulated use of firearms, particularly while another hunt may be ongoing, would pose a safety risk,’ the statement said.

‘There is an open mechanism where visits to cultural sites and community hunting can be requested and arranged in advance.’

The last time Molokai Ranch placed a gate on the land and blocked access to its beaches was in 1975, under a different owner.

Ritte led more than 200 residents on a hike across West Molokai on an old Hawaiian foot trail to protest their protected right of access.

‘We will be exercising our birthright as Hawaiians to walk on a Hawaiian trail,’ he wrote in a 1975 article of the Honolulu Advertiser.

‘We, the people of Hawaii, own the beaches and we are going to go to those beaches whenever we want. We are not going to bow down before Molokai Ranch and say, ‘Please give us a pass, so I can fish to feed my family.’

The land was originally owned by the Hawaiian monarchy before it was bought by a businessman for sugar cane production in 1897.

It has since changed hands multiple times and been used for a variety of commercial purposes including a golf club and a wildlife park.

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