Hawaiʻi Beaches Forever
Protecting Hawaiʻi's Beaches for Future Generations
As an entirely coastal state, Hawaiʻi depends on healthy beaches and resilient shorelines. Our beaches are foundational to Native Hawaiian culture, thriving coastal ecosystems, community well-being, public safety, and the economy. It is impossible to imagine a Hawaiʻi without its beaches, yet that is precisely the future we are on track to leave behind in many cases. Climate driven impacts including sea level rise, intense storms, chronic erosion, coastal flooding and more than a century of coastal development are accelerating beach loss across the state. As beaches attempt to migrate inland, they are trapped between rising seas and hardened shorelines and development creating a coastal-squeeze, causing them to narrow and disappear.
Without healthy beaches and wide, resilient dune systems, our coastal communities become more vulnerable to flooding, erosion, and structural collapse, while the ecosystems and cultural resources that depend on these shorelines continue to decline. Although Hawaiʻi has some of the strongest shoreline protections in the nation, there is no dedicated statewide effort to build the public understanding, community leadership, and political will needed to secure the future of our beaches.
The time is now. We must protect our public beaches before we lose them.
Surfrider Hawai'i is leading the charge to advance a long-term vision for healthy beaches and the connected ecosystems and communities that depend on them.
Hawai'i Beaches forever is a framework to guide our advocacy and stewardship efforts into one coordinated Statewide strategy around four priorities:
1. Reduce reliance on short-term fixes to coastal hazards.
Too often, temporary shoreline protection becomes permanent, accelerating beach loss and delaying the long-term solutions needed to adapt to a changing coastline. Hawaiʻi Beaches Forever works to increase accountability, strengthen oversight, and ensure shoreline decisions prioritize healthy beaches over short-term fixes.
How we do it:
- Permit Oversight & Accountability: Increase public oversight of shoreline protection proposals and advocate for stronger permit conditions that prioritize long-term adaptation.
- Enforcement & Deterrence: Hold agencies and property owners accountable by ensuring shoreline laws, permit conditions, and settlement agreements are enforced.
- Policy & Rule Reform: Strengthen laws and administrative rules to close regulatory loopholes and shift shoreline management from reactive protection to proactive adaptation.
Current campaigns:
Improve Hawai'i Administrative Rules for Hawai'i Shorelines (campaign page pending)
Campaign victories:
Stop the misuse of Emergency Shoreline permits at Mantokuji Mission, Pāʻia
2. Strategic Beach Management
As Hawaiʻi transitions toward long-term coastal adaptation, beaches need thoughtful management—not just emergency intervention. Hawaiʻi Beaches Forever advances science-based, community-informed approaches that maintain healthy beaches while supporting long-term resilience.
How we do it:
- Beach Management Planning & Science: Support planning, research, and collaboration that improve our understanding of beach systems and guide future management decisions.
- Beach Management Guardrails: Establish clear policies and performance standards to ensure beach management tools support, rather than delay, long-term adaptation.
- Innovative Beach Management Solutions: Advance and evaluate nature-based, hybrid, and other innovative approaches that provide better alternatives to shoreline armoring.
Current efforts and Campaigns:
North Shore Coastal Resilience Working Group , Oʻahu
North Shore Beach Management Plan, Oʻahu
Manage Hawaiʻi's Beaches Better- Strengthen the State's Small Scale Beach Restoration Program, Statewide
3. Plan for Shoreline Retreat
As sea levels rise and coastal hazards intensify, Hawaiʻi needs practical pathways to help communities, property owners, and public agencies transition away from vulnerable shorelines. Hawaiʻi Beaches Forever works to make long-term adaptation possible before a crisis occurs.
How we do it:
- Advance Adaptation & Retreat Opportunities: Support planning efforts and demonstration projects that show how relocation, managed retreat, and long-term adaptation can succeed.
- Funding & Implementation: Advocate for the funding, policies, and implementation tools needed to make proactive adaptation financially and logistically feasible.
- Incentivize Adaptation & Retreat: Develop the data, valuation frameworks, and decision-making tools that help communities understand the benefits of adaptation and the costs of inaction.
- Build Public Understanding & Support: Increase awareness, foster community dialogue, and normalize adaptation through storytelling, education, and successful real-world examples.
Current Campaigns:
Support landward relocation of Mantokuji Mission, Maui
Stop Kahana Sunset Impacts to Public Shoreline, Maui
Campaign Victories:
4. Community-Based Stewardship
Healthy beaches depend on healthy dune systems and engaged communities. By restoring coastal ecosystems and reconnecting people to the shoreline, Hawaiʻi Beaches Forever is building a culture of stewardship that supports long-term beach resilience.
.jpg?width=500&height=375&name=HappyBeach_HappyPeople_10.23.2024%20(1).jpg "HappyBeach_HappyPeople_10.23.2024 (1)")
How we do it:
- Identify, Prioritize & Plan: Focus restoration efforts where they can have the greatest ecological, cultural, and community impact.
- Restore & Steward: Restore native dune ecosystems, improve coastal habitat, and engage volunteers and community partners in hands-on stewardship.
- Shift Public Perception & Build Community Support: Demonstrate what healthy beaches look like through restoration, education, storytelling, and community engagement, building lasting support for beach conservation.
Current Projects
Kahili Beach Coastal Stewardship & Climate Action Program, Kauaʻi
Kapukaulua Dune Restoration Project, Maui in collaboration with Hawaiʻi Sea Grant
Lahaina Regional Dune Restoration Planning fronting properties rebuilding post fire with Maui Planning Department, Hawaiʻi Sea Grant and Jodo Mission.
Get Involved
- Join one of our campaigns
- Stay informed and sign up for regional newsletters below
- Get in touch with our team:
- Hanna Lilley, Surfrider Foundation Hawaiʻi Regional Manager at hlilley@surfrider.org
