STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1072

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 121

       H.D. 3

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 121, H.D. 3, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OCEAN MANAGEMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Establish the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument program to coordinate and fulfill the State's role and responsibilities in co-managing the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument; and

     (2)  Statutorily establish a goal to effectively manage thirty percent of nearshore waters by 2030.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i and five individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from three individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Office of Planning.

     Your Committees find that President Barack Obama issued Presidential Proclamation 9478 on August 26, 2016, to expand the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument to provide critical protections for more than seven thousand marine species, including whales and sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act and the longest-living marine species in the world, black coral, which live longer than four thousand five hundred years.  The expanded Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument will improve ocean resilience, help the region's distinct physical and biological resources adapt, and create a natural laboratory that will allow scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change on these fragile ecosystems.

     Your Committees find that the Department of Land and Natural Resources has served as the lead agency of the State to co-manage the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.  In this role, the Department has exercised its stewardship responsibility for managing, administering, and exercising control over lands, waters, and natural resources within the State's jurisdiction.  Your Committees further find that in January 2017, an updated Memorandum of Agreement for the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was executed and added the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as a second state co-trustee for the monument.  In its capacity as a co-trustee of the monument, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is better situated to incorporate native Hawaiian cultural resources management into management of the monument and protect the customary and traditional rights and practices of native Hawaiians exercised for subsistence, cultural, and religious purposes under section 7 of article XII of the state constitution.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting language that required certain agencies to establish a goal of effectively managing thirty percent of the nearshore waters by 2030;

     (2)  Inserting references to the designation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as a co-trustee of the monument, pursuant to an agreement with the State and two departments of the federal government;

     (3)  Inserting language to allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to take other actions as necessary to effectively manage natural and cultural resources of the monument;

     (4)  Adding an appropriation to the Department of Land and Natural Resources for the purposes of this measure; and

     (5)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 121, H.D. 3, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 121, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair