STAND. COM. REP. NO. 458-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2218

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Water & Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 2218 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Authorize the Department of Land and Natural Resources to enter into community co-management agreements and establish qualifications for eligible community co-managers; and

(2) Authorize the disposition of public lands by a community co-management agreement.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Department of Land and Natural Resources; Office of the Mayor of the County of Kauaʻi; Office of Economic Development of the County of Kauaʻi; The Outdoor Circle; Trust for Public Land; The Nature Conservancy, Hawaiʻi and Palmyra; Hawaiʻi Land Trust; Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi; Hawaiʻi Community Foundation; Moanalua Gardens Foundation; Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition; Hawaiʻi Ocean Legislative Task Force; Hawaiʻi Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations; Hawaiʻi Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development; Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action; Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo; Mālama Pūpūkea-Waimea; Green Party of Hawaiʻi; Malama Kauaʻi; Nation of Hawaiʻi; Kīpahulu ʻOhana, Inc.; Makahanaloa Fishing Association; Kauai Climate Action Coalition; Hui Makaʻāinana o Makana; Hoʻāla Kealakekua Nui, Inc.; Aliʻi Pauahi Hawaiian Civic Club; Hui Kahuwai; The Waipā Foundation; Sustainable Coastlines Hawaiʻi; Pōhaku Pelemaka; Moana Ohana; The Hanalei Initiative; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that many community organizations have collaborated and partnered with the State and counties for years to take care of public lands in Hawaii. Your Committee further finds that this measure responds to long-standing structural limitations that prevent the Department from forming effective, long-term partnerships with community organizations that are essential to the continued stewardship and care of public lands.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Providing that every five years, beginning from the effective date of the community co-management agreement, the Department of Land and Natural Resources shall submit to the Board of Land and Natural Resources for its review a report detailing the community-based organization's progress on meeting the goals set out in the co-management plan;

(2) Authorizing the Board of Land and Natural Resources to make any applicable amendments to the co-management plan or terminate the community co-management agreement, pursuant to paragraph (1);

(3) Changing its effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider how to address the issue of two or more community-based organizations that wish to undertake community co-management in the same community co-management unit.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water & Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2218, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2218, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water & Land,

____________________________

MARK J. HASHEM, Chair