Public Policy Center > Group G
Group G: Hawaii's Cultural And Natural Resources
Policy Issue Brief: ”Hawaii's Cultural And Natural Resources” (PDF)
by Davianna McGregor
Members:
Donna Camvel
Betty Ann Keala
Davianna McGregor
Luciano Minerbi
U’Ilani Pau’ole
Karen Piltz
Facilitator: Bruce Barnes
Summary of the Work Sessions:
Session I. Preferred Futures and Public Policy Strategies
Hawai'i's cultural resources can be focused on Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian)cultural values, land use traditions, and can be re-focused on the sustainable aspects of traditional Hawaiian agricultural, land use and ecosystem management values. Culturally-based decision-making processes such as expansion of burial council concepts, AHA councils, 'ohana co-managed ecosystems, and culture-based conflict resolution mechanisms need to be preserved, revived or adapted for modern realities. Planning policies need to include: a state sustainability plan, eco-footprints of the changing capacity of the state, land tax restructuring, updating of state and county plans, a MANUAL setting out clear guidelines for conducting cultural impact assessments, making the state's economic goals serve Agenda 21, and baseline GIS mapping by communities of cultural and natural resources to guide permitting decisions.
Many of these preferred futures will require enlightened legislators and legislative processes such as involving Hawaiian practitioner reviewers as advisers, electing courageous decision-makers committed to protecting cultural and natural resources, clearer laws and rules regarding development, historic preservation, population limits, maintaining view planes, promoting underground wiring and protecting wildlife, and supporting small successful pilot projects.
We need education regarding sustainability that must include reaching out to all sectors of our population and communities with guidelines, case studies, getting everyone to realize the need for action, and developing leadership institutes and programs to teach people how to be cultural and natural resource stewards. Hawaiian cultural values and practices should be infused at all levels of this educational effort.
Finally, Hawai'i can become a center of expertise on sustainability and a laboratory on ecosettlement/ecomanagement beginning with DHHL land use and serving Asia and Pacific, consulting in affordable housing, small scale technologies, CBED and watershed planning as just a few examples. These consulting services can meet the needs of developing countries, particularly in the tropics. More detailed notes on participant input (PDF)
Session II. Public Policies and Recommendations/ Next Steps
1. Priority Public Policies:
Lifelong stewardship, education, training, developing models for stewardship and sustaining resources, and the dedication of a portion of tourist tax and GE tax for sustainability of cultural and natural resources
2. Recommended Next Steps:
a. Convene a working group of interested parties to work on the above
b. Identify funding sources to fund sustainability pilot projects
c. Partner with the Environmental Center
d. Convene those who have come to the conference workshop and those who were interested but couldn’t make it who want to be involved in a follow-up process and who want to undertake small to larger projects to:
- develop a manual and guidelines in how to best conduct cultural impact studies and guidelines on sustainability standards and convene planners-- county and state --to share best practices and standards for development permits and mitigation measures.
- launch pilot project on how to involve Hawaiian practitioners in reviews of penalty and cultural impact studies
- enhance stewardship training programs--encourage networking among stewardship programs; college students e.g. service, credit, like writing intensive, integrate info into a service--learning programs for college students e.g. service, credit, like writing intensive.
e. We need to implement each of the programs set out in the previous section previous section regarding planning and education. We must build into legislative processes the following: tax incentives, infrastructure expenditures, big fines, citizen law suits re-direct legislative funding from interests to sustainable efforts, fund the UH Environmental Center through taxing developers for the EIS/EA studies, and fund the PPC to do policy research. We can design sustainable projects and invite developers and investors to buy into them. More detailed notes on participant input (PDF)
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