SUPPORT HB2218 HD2: Empower Communities to Co-Manage ʻĀina
/🤝HB2218 HD2 would authorize community co-management agreements between the Hawaiʻi Board of Land and Natural Resources and mālama ʻāina organizations seeking to steward their ʻāina and foster deeper connections between people and place. This measure is being heard on Monday, March 23, at 1:05pm in Capitol room 224, before the Senate Water, Land, Culture and the Arts Committee (to be broadcast live on Youtube here).
Why this bill is important
HB2218 addresses a critical gap in Hawaiʻi’s ability to fulfill its constitutional duty to mālama ʻāina. While the Board of Land and Natural Resources bears this responsibility, it lacks the institutional capacity to effectively manage the vast lands and waters under its jurisdiction alone. Grassroots communities stand ready to partner in this stewardship, but no clear or consistent legal pathway exists for the Board to formalize such collaborations. By establishing an explicit and flexible framework for cooperative management—developed in partnership with the Department of Land and Natural Resources—this measure would finally authorize and empower community co-management, delivering transformative benefits to natural and cultural resources in service of the public trust and future generations.
Sample testimony for HB2218 HD2
Aloha Chair Lee, Vice Chair Inouye, and members of the Committee,
My name is [Your name] and I STRONGLY SUPPORT HB2218 HD2, which will allow the Land Board to realize the tremendous potential benefits that community organizations can provide in upholding the public trust, and protecting the environmental and cultural foundations of our islands and ways of life.
The Board of Land and Natural Resources is the primary entity tasked with carrying out the state of Hawaiʻi’s affirmative, constitutional duty to mālama ʻāina, or to care for the natural and cultural resources of our islands. However, the vast areas of land and waters under its jurisdiction and its own institutional limitations mean the Land Board simply cannot uphold this constitutional obligation on its own. Fortunately, grassroots communities throughout Hawaiʻi have long expressed their willingness to partner with the Land Board, to co-manage and steward the lands and waters that they are both intimately familiar with and deeply committed to, as dedicated tenants of their ʻāina. Unfortunately, however, no explicit or consistent legal pathway exists for the Land Board to enter into formal agreements that can facilitate such community partnerships, in furtherance of its and the state’s constitutional duties.
This measure would accordingly establish a clear, explicit, and flexible framework for collaboration, itself developed in partnership between community organizations and the Department of Land and Natural Resources, that could provide transformative benefits to natural and cultural resource management throughout Hawaiʻi, for the benefit of the public trust, our ʻāina, and present and future generations.
I do request a friendly amendment to this bill, to remove superfluous 5-year reporting requirement that could create significant administrative burdens for both Department of Land and Natural Resources staff as well as its community partners. Such reporting could arbitrarily limit this measure’s potential benefits, as Department staff may be forced to use their limited time and capacity to prepare these 5-year reports rather than facilitate community partnerships. Notably, “performance and accountability standards” and “reporting processes and requirements” are already required for any community co-management plan entered into under this bill; the frequency and need for an additional review of and reporting on community co-management agreements should therefore be left to the discretion of DLNR and each community-based organization, based on their own unique circumstances and needs.
Accordingly, I respectfully but strongly urge the Committee to PASS this measure, with a friendly amendment removing the reporting requirement found on page 7, lines 15-21.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
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