Aloha! I founded Palm Protectors because I refuse to accept a Hawaii without coconut trees.

TLDR: Our site is almost complete: https://www.palmprotectors.org/
We're building Hawaii's premier conservation network to save our iconic coconut trees from invasive rhinoceros beetles through community funding and expert partnerships.

The threat from the invasive rhinoceros beetles is severe and worsening rapidly. They have been systematically destroying our iconic palms—boring into tree crowns and killing them from the inside out. Century-old coconut trees that survived hurricanes and tsunamis are being reduced to hollow stumps by insects the size of your thumb. What started on Oahu has spread across multiple islands, and the damage accelerates every month.

Here's what haunts me: this crisis is completely solvable and is a marketing problem. We have treatments that work and research showing promise. What we lack is coordinated effort and resources at the scale this emergency demands.

Palm Protectors tackles this through three focused strategies:
Urgent Awareness - building a movement of people who understand what we stand to lose (coconut palm trees).
Immediate Action - funding emergency treatment for infected trees and preventive care for healthy ones through partnerships with certified arborists and pest control specialists.
Strategic Research - investing in biocontrol methods, resistant palm varieties, and early detection systems with University of Hawaii and other institutions.

We're creating Hawaii's premier palm conservation network, channeling community donations to vetted partners across all islands. Every month we delay, we lose irreplaceable trees forever—trees that aren't just scenery, but deeply woven into who we are as Hawaii.

Mahalo for any help!