Policy makers and resource managers in Hawai‘i often look to the ancient Hawaiian system of resource management, known as the ahupua‘a system, as a holistic and sustainable mountains-to-sea model for restoration of social-ecological system health and function. Many components of this ancient system, such as agriculture, aquaculture, and nearshore fishery management, have been documented, studied, and revived in the name of both sustainability and perpetuation of Hawai‘i's indigenous culture. One relatively glaring hole in the context of our understanding of this ancient system is management of forest resources on a system (i.e., large-scale plant community) level. Five terms for identified and managed social-ecological zones, wao kānaka, wao lā‘au, wao nāhele, wao kele, and wao akua, were used to delineate GIS layers in the model ahupua‘a of Hā‘ena. These were then extrapolated across the entire island of Kaua‘i. The resulting map indicates that not all ahupua‘a on Kaua‘i had all five social-ecological zones, which gives valuable insight into how upland regions of the various ahupua‘a may have been managed in the ali‘i era. This research has implications for contemporary approaches to large-scale biocultural conservation initiatives and other resource management plans that aim toward having broader community support for such efforts. Analysis shows that broad overlap between the ancient system and contemporary management zones exists, which implies that it may be feasible to adapt this ancient approach in the bureaucratic system of the contemporary era.