STAND. COM. REP. NO.444

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 843

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 843 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONSERVATION OF AQUATIC LIFE, WILDLIFE, AND LAND PLANTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to expand the definition of "landowner" to allow public agencies to enter into Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) and Safe Harbor Agreements (SHAs), while it ensures important safeguards and addresses significant deficiencies in the current statutory language authorizing HCPs and SHAs.

Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter, EarthJustice, and Conservation Council for Hawaii submitted testimony supporting this measure. The Department of Transportation and the Board of Land and Natural Resources submitted testimony supporting the intent of this measure. Land Use Research Foundation, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, The Estate of James Campbell, Hawaii Reserves Inc., and Hawaii Forest Industry Association submitted testimony opposing this measure, and The Nature Conservancy submitted comments on this measure.

In particular, this measure establishes higher standards for SHAs and HCPs on public lands, changes requirements for SHAs and HCPs on both public and private lands, and establishes a citizens suit provision.

Your Committee finds that HCPs and SHAs properly come into play only in limited cases, where there would be an overriding benefit that justifies allowing the incidental "taking" (killing, harming, wounding, or harassing) of endangered or threatened species. Because HCPs and SHAs authorize the killing of endangered species, they are inherently fraught with danger. Adequate and appropriate safeguards are vital to ensure that these agreements reap the promised benefits and do not undermine the public policy in favor of bringing Hawaii's unique native species back from the brink of extinction to full recovery.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Defining "private land" as all lands that are not "public lands" and "public lands" as lands owned by the federal government, State, county, or any political subdivision;

(2) Requiring the Board of Land and Natural Resources to suspend or revoke an HCP or SHA where the continuation of the permitted activity would likely and appreciably reduce the survival or recovery of the threatened or endangered species;

(3) Deleting the citizen suit provisions;

(4) Deleting the landowner obligation for additional mitigation measures that are deemed necessary; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 843, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 843, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy and Environment,

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair