STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3642

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1802

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1802, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONSERVATION MITIGATION BANKS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect the State's threatened, endangered, candidate, and proposed species and their habitats through the use of conservation banks.

More specifically, this measure:

(1) Authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources and certain public or private entities to operate conservation banks, subject to certain requirements, including the approval of the Board of Land and Natural Resources;

(2) Adds the Associate Director of the United States Geological Survey, Ecosystem Mission Area, to the membership of the Endangered Species Recovery Committee; and

(3) Requires the Endangered Species Recovery Committee to review applications and proposals for conservation banks and to conduct subsequent reviews and oversight.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources' Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition, Climate Protectors Hawaii, Earthjustice, Sierra Club of Hawaii, and The Nature Conservancy.

Your Committee finds that conservation banks are large-scale projects aimed at increasing populations of threatened, endangered, candidate, and proposed species and improving their habitats. Your Committee further finds that conservation banks serve as an essential tool for incidental take licensees who have habitat conservation plans that require mitigation to offset the impacts of their activities on listed species. Your Committee believes that, by setting guidelines for conservation banks to ensure their consistent creation and operation, this measure will help the State better protect and restore populations of vulnerable species.

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 H.B. No. 1802, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

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

________________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair