STAND. COM. REP. NO. 836

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1853

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1853, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NATIVE HAWAIIANS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish a system of best management practices, called the aha moku council system, based on indigenous resource management practices of native Hawaiians based on moku or land divisions, that will foster understanding and practical use of the past practices, including native Hawaiian expertise, to ensure responsible stewardship and an awareness of the interconnectedness of forests, land, valleys, streams, fishponds, and sea.

     Specifically, this measure establishes:

     (1)  The aha moku council system advisory committee that shall:

          (A)  Explore and derive best management practices for the creation of an aha moku council system to provide input based upon the indigenous resource management practices in each moku;

          (B)  Establish an administrative structure for the creation of an aha moku council commission; and

          (C)  Establish goals and objectives for an aha moku council system to include benchmarks for long-range planning and sustainable objectives; and

     (2)  Report to the Legislature twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2008 and 2009 with an interim and final report on its findings, including proposed legislation, for the establishment of the aha moku council system.

     You Committee received comments in support of this measure from the State Council of Hawaiian Homestead Association, the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, and a private citizen.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Education, and Office of Hawaiian Affairs offered comments.

     Your Committee finds that native Hawaiians, through an aha moku council system, protected their environment and maintained a system of sustainability of the resources of Hawaii that they depended upon for thousands of years.  Your Committee finds that this system should be revived.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Revising the process for choosing advisory committee members to include a list of nominees to be submitted by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands;

     (2)  Including in the best practices considerations both natural and cultural resources;

     (3)  Emphasizing that the aha moku system shall focus on the sustainability of the State's resources and not merely in the sustainable use of those resources;

     (4)  Changing the amount appropriated to an unspecified sum to allow further discussion of this measure; and

     (5)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for purposes for clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1853, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1853, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair