{{Short description|American conservation biologist and Hawaiian cultural practitioner}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}} {{notability|1=Academics|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox writer | image = frameless | image_caption = Sam Gon (second from right) | name = Sam Gon | occupation = Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi and Palmyra | education = Bachelor's in Zoology at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Master's in Zoology and PhD in Animal Behavior at University of California at Davis. }} thumb|A ''Theridion grallator'', also known as the happy-face spider, an endemic species to the Hawaiian Archipelago '''Samuel M. {{okina}}Ohukani{{okina}}ōhi{{okina}}a Gon III''' is an American scientist and Hawaiian cultural practitioner, currently serving as Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi. He was born and raised in Nuʻuanu on the island of Oʻahu. Gon studied Hawaiian culture under Kumu John Keolamala{{okina}}āinana Lake.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kumu John Keola Lake |url=http://huionaopio.weebly.com/kumu-john-keola-lake.html |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=Hui o Nā ʻŌpio est. 1965}}</ref> Gon works to integrate Hawaiian culture, values, and knowledge into conservation efforts, for which he was named a Living Treasure of Hawaii<ref name=":2" /> by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii<ref>{{Cite web |last=Herald |first=Hawaii |title=The Hawaii Herald - Hawaii's Japanese American Journal |url=https://www.thehawaiiherald.com/2019/09/13/culture-and-science-samuel-ohu-gon-iii-master-chanter/ |access-date=2023-05-01 |website=The Hawaii Herald |date=September 13, 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref> for his contributions towards preserving Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian ecology.
== Early life == Gon was born in Honolulu Hawaiʻi on December 16, 1955, and graduated in 1973 from McKinley High School<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Hawaii's 'Living Treasure' to give talk in Kuching on 9 November |url=https://programs.wcs.org/malaysia/About-Us/News/ID/10795/Hawaiis-Living-Treasure-to-give-talk-in-Kuching-on-9-November.aspx |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=programs.wcs.org |language=en-US}}</ref> and earned a Bachelor's in Zoology (1978) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=by |title=Sam 'Ohu Gon III – Biocultural Initiative of the Pacific |url=https://manoa.hawaii.edu/biocultural/gon/ |access-date=2023-04-14 |language=en-US}}</ref> He continued his education at the University of California at Davis<ref name=":0" /> earning his Master's in Zoology (1980) and a PhD in animal behavior (1984), studying the Happy-face Spider, ''Theridion grallator''.
== Career == After attaining his Ph.D., Gon worked for a year in the Entomology Department of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, before being hired by The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii in 1986. In that organization, he served as an exploratory ecologist (1986-1990), Director of the Hawaiʻi Natural Heritage Program (1991-2002), and Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor (2003-present) through his career, he orchestrated research and initiatives that supported The Conservancyʻs work to preserve Hawaii's biodiversity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii |url=https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/hawaii/ |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=The Nature Conservancy |language=en-US}}</ref> Gon managed biological inventories for the Conservancy and the state of Hawaii.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Sam 'Ohu Gon III |url=http://www.hawaiiecoregionplan.info/samgon.html |access-date=2023-04-14 |website=www.hawaiiecoregionplan.info}}</ref>
His work as the Director of the Hawai{{okina}}i Natural Heritage Program directed a team of biologists and data managers working to protect the rarest endemic species and ecosystems across all of the Hawaiian Islands by tracking their locations, management needs, and protection status. Later, he worked with the Conservancy's island programs strengthening conservation and management strategies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Speaker Samuel GON III |url=https://www.iucncongress2020.org/programme/speakers/samuel-gon-iii |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020 |language=en}}</ref> Gon helped establish ecological analysis and biodiversity data management systems for projects in East Asia, Latin America, Polynesia, and Micronesia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sam 'Ohu Gon III |url=http://trilobites.info/samgon.html |access-date=2023-04-14 |website=trilobites.info}}</ref> In 1991, Sam sailed on Hōkūleʻa around the Hawaiian Islands. He served on the board of the Ōhi'a Project, focused on Hawaiʻi's endemic and most abundant native tree.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 'Ōhi'a Tree and Native Forest Birds - Revive & Restore |url=https://reviverestore.org/samgon/ |access-date=2023-04-16 |language=en-US}}</ref> He was an executive committee member of the Hawaiian Conservation Alliance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our Committees |url=https://www.hawaiiconservation.org/the-alliance/committees/ |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=Hawaii Conservation Alliance |language=en-US}}</ref> Gon was a board member<ref name=":1" /> for Ahahui Malama i ka Lokahi which is a native Hawaiian organization conserving native plants and animals in Hawaii, and for the Kaho{{okina}}olawe Island Reserve Commission with a focus on habitat restoration.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Use Plan Page |url=http://www.kahoolawe.hawaii.gov/plans/Use%20Plan%20Page.htm |access-date=2023-04-16 |website=www.kahoolawe.hawaii.gov}}</ref> In 2015, while Gon was a part of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, he was an advocate for the protection of the native species, such as O{{okina}}opu<ref>{{Cite web |title=BOARD TALK: Land Board Tightens Lay Gill Netting Rules, Vows to Continue Dialogue with Fishers, Hawaiians - |url=https://www.environment-hawaii.org/?p=1411 |access-date=2023-04-27 |language=en-US}}</ref> (''Awaous stamineus'') at risk of extinction.
'''Biocultural Conservation'''
Gon has been a strong advocate for biocultural conservation, melding indigenous Hawaiian knowledge, values, and practices into mainstream conservation. With the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance, he drafted the alliance's position paper on Hawaiian Culture in Conservation in Hawaiʻi, providing guidance to all conservation partners in multiple sectors (government, academia, and NGO) on integrating Hawaiian culture into conventional conservation practice. [section requires expansion and citations]
== Research, publications and speeches == Gon has given numerous presentations about Hawaiian ecosystems and culture to global audiences, such as the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian, the Ethnological Museum in Dalem, Berlin, Germany (2011), the National Museum of Natural History in Paris (2012), and the Museum of World Culture in Paris, France (2014)<sup>.</sup><ref name=":1" />
In 2014 Gon gave a TedTalk on Maui on combining science and Hawaiian cultural practices. Gon and colleagues at The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs contributed to a collaborative effort calculating the ecological footprint of pre-contact Hawaiʻi.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Iii |first=Samuel M. ʻOhukaniʻōhiʻa Gon |title=Wao Kānaka: The Hawaiian Pre-Contact Ecological Footprint |url=https://www.academia.edu/7310770}}</ref>
Gon has published many articles on Hawaiian natural history, conservation biology, landscape history, biocultural conservation, and sustainability, including [list of publications requires reorganization and corrections] altitudinal effects on the general diversity of endemic insect communities in Leeward Hawaiian forests (1978), invertebrate domestication (1984), water bears (1986), endemic Hawaiian plants (1987; 2008), sex-biased pattern variations in birds of prey (2003), applications of traditional Hawaiian knowledge (2008), using historic human ecological footprints to inform biocultural restoration and sustainability (2018), the Hawaiian Renaissance and global sustainability (2019), optimizing ecosystem services (2020), conservation of subterranean biomes (2021), and methodologies for exploring indigenous conceptualizations of nature and conservation (2022).
He is also the creator of a globally-recognized website on trilobite classification and biology [https://trilobites.info/ Trilobites.info] A Guide to the Orders of Trilobites<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.trilobites.info/|title=A Guide to the Orders of Trilobites|website=www.trilobites.info}}</ref>
=== Publications ===
* {{cite journal |last1=Gon |first1=Samuel M. |last2=Price |first2=Edward O. |title=Invertebrate Domestication: Behavioral Considerations |url=https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/34/9/575/275614 |journal=BioScience |access-date=8 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430154909/https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/34/9/575/275614 |archive-date=Apr 30, 2023 |pages=575{{ndash}}579 |language=en |doi=10.2307/1309600 |date=October 1984 |url-status=live |volume=34 |number=9|jstor=1309600 |url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Gon |first1=S. M. Iii |last2=Kimsey |first2=R. A. |last3=Schuster |first3=R. O. |last4=Willis |first4=M. A. |date=June 1986 |title=A prodromus of the water bear fauna of Haleakala National Park |hdl=10125/18495 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10125/18495 |language=en}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Nagata |first1=Kenneth M. |last2=Gon |first2=S. |date=1987 |title=Sanicula mariversa (Apiaceae), a New Species from 'Ohikilolo Ridge, Wai'anae Mountains, O'ahu in the Hawaiian Archipelago |journal=Systematic Botany |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=406–409 |doi=10.2307/2419265 |jstor=2419265 |bibcode=1987SysBo..12..406N |s2cid=87795637 |language=en}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Baird |first1=Amy B. |last2=Braun |first2=Janet K. |last3=Mares |first3=Michael A. |last4=Morales |first4=Juan Carlos |last5=Patton |first5=John C. |last6=Tran |first6=Christina Q. |last7=Bickham |first7=John W. |date=2015 |title=Molecular systematic revision of tree bats (Lasiurini): doubling the native mammals of the Hawaiian Islands |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=96 |issue=6 |pages=1255–1274 |doi=10.1093/jmammal/gyv135 |jstor=26373001 |issn=0022-2372|doi-access=free }} * {{Cite web |title=A Pictorical Guide to the Orders of Trilobites - Anna's Archive |url=https://annas-archive.org/md5/1c691e6cd8005b60251b737589367919 |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=annas-archive.org}} * {{Cite journal |last=Iii |first=Samuel M. Gon |date=2003 |title=Application of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Practices of Indigenous Hawaiians to Re-vegetation of Kaho'olawe |url=https://ethnobotanyjournal.org/index.php/era/article/view/23 |journal=Ethnobotany Research and Applications |language=en |volume=1 |pages=005–020 |issn=1547-3465}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Lin |first1=Jih-Pai |last2=Gon |first2=S. |last3=Gehling |first3=J. |last4=Babcock |first4=L. |last5=Zhao |first5=Yuan-long |last6=Zhang |first6=Xingliang |last7=Hu |first7=Shi-xue |last8=Yuan |first8=Jinliang |last9=Yu |first9=M. |last10=Peng |first10=Jin |date=2006 |title=A Parvancorina-like arthropod from the Cambrian of South China |journal=Historical Biology |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=33–45 |doi=10.1080/08912960500508689 |bibcode=2006HBio...18...33L |s2cid=85821717 |language=en}} * {{Cite web |title=Mapping Plant Species Ranges in the Hawaiian Islands; Developing a Methodology and Associated GIS Layers |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1192/ |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=pubs.usgs.gov}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Ladefoged |first1=Thegn N. |last2=Kirch |first2=Patrick V. |last3=Gon |first3=Samuel M. |last4=Chadwick |first4=Oliver A. |last5=Hartshorn |first5=Anthony S. |last6=Vitousek |first6=Peter M. |date=2009 |title=Opportunities and constraints for intensive agriculture in the Hawaiian archipelago prior to European contact |url=https://www.infona.pl//resource/bwmeta1.element.elsevier-23a88bcb-740e-332c-8ac1-08696704ff63 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |language=English |volume=10 |issue=36 |pages=2374–2383 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2009.06.030 |bibcode=2009JArSc..36.2374L |issn=0305-4403|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Fortini |first1=Lucas |last2=Price |first2=Jonathan |last3=Jacobi |first3=James |last4=Vorsino |first4=Adam |last5=Burgett |first5=Jeff |last6=Brinck |first6=Kevin |last7=Amidon |first7=Fred |last8=Miller |first8=Steve |last9=Gon III |first9=Sam |last10=Koob |first10=Gregory |last11=Paxton |first11=Eben |date=2016-01-25 |title=A landscape-based assessment of climate change vulnerability for all native plants. |hdl=10790/2620 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10790/2620 |language=en-US}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Winter |first1=Kawika |last2=Lincoln |first2=Noa |last3=Berkes |first3=Fikret |last4=Alegado |first4=Rosanna |last5=Kurashima |first5=Natalie |last6=Frank |first6=Kiana |last7=Pascua |first7=Puaʻala |last8=Rii |first8=Yoshimi |last9=Reppun |first9=Frederick |last10=Knapp |first10=Ingrid |last11=McClatchey |first11=Will |last12=Ticktin |first12=Tamara |last13=Smith |first13=Celia |last14=Franklin |first14=Erik |last15=Oleson |first15=Kirsten |date=2020-06-27 |title=Ecomimicry in Indigenous resource management: optimizing ecosystem services to achieve resource abundance, with examples from Hawaiʻi |url=https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss2/art26/ |journal=Ecology and Society |language=en |volume=25 |issue=2 |article-number=art26 |doi=10.5751/ES-11539-250226 |s2cid=220126676 |issn=1708-3087|doi-access=free }}
== References == <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gon, Sam}} Category:American biologists Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Category:University of California, Davis alumni
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gon, Sam}}