STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3253

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2218

H.D. 2

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 Water, Land, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 2218, H.D. 2, entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent 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 Department of Land and Natural Resources; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program; Office of the Mayor of the County of Kauaʻi; Hawaiʻi State Youth Commission; Hawaiʻi Community Foundation; Kauʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo; Hawaiʻi Ocean Legislative Task Force; Koʻolauloa Hawaiian Civic Club; Hui Makaʻāinana o Makana; Kūpuna for the Moʻopuna; The Nature Conservancy, Hawaiʻi and Palmyra; Free Access Coalition; Care for ʻĀina Now Coalition; Moana Ohana; Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi; Hawaiʻi Food+ Policy; Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; Mālama Pūpūkea‑Waimea; Shimanchu Mamuyaa; Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund; Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii; Kalanihale; Hawaiʻi Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development; Hawaiʻi Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations; Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United; and thirty-nine individuals.

Your Committee finds that the State alone cannot sustainably manage the State's public trust resources. One possible strategy to address this issue is through the use of community co‑management agreements, where government agencies partner with the local community to care for wahi pana and surrounding resources. Your Committee recognizes that, though many communities throughout the State have already initiated and perpetuated decades-long collaboration with the government on the preservation of local environments, the lack of statutory authority, a formalized process, and support through long term co‑management agreements limit the effectiveness of these grassroots efforts. This measure will promote more effective stewardship of public trust resources for present and future generations and honor the Native Hawaiian concepts of mālama ʻāina and ahupuaʻa‑based management.

Your Committee acknowledges the concerns raised in testimony that the Department of Land and Natural Resource's quintennial report on the community-based organization's progress toward meeting the goals set out in the co-management plan is redundant, based on other statutory reporting requirements, and may also result in undue administrative burden on the Department and the community-based organization. While your Committee understands the request from testifiers to remove the reporting requirement altogether, because the co-management agreement process is being newly established by this measure, your Committee recognizes the need for governmental accountability and transparency during the initial roll-out stage of the process. Your Committee also notes the recommendation provided in testimony by the Department of Land and Natural Resources that collaboration between the applicant and the Department on the co-management plan needs to be explicitly mandated. Amendments to this measure are therefore necessary to address these concerns.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language expanding the purposes for which community co-management agreements shall be used solely and exclusively to include the management of public and recreational parks and facilities;

(2) Specifying that, when deciding whether a community-based organization is qualified to enter into a community co‑management agreement, the Board of Land and Natural Resources shall consider a co‑management plan recommended by the Department of Land and Natural Resources;

(3) Changing the timing of the reporting requirements for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to submit to the Board of Land and Natural Resources a report detailing the community-based organization's progress on meeting the goals set out in the co-management plan from five years to ten years after the effective date of the community co-management agreement; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2218, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2218, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts,

________________________________

CHRIS LEE, Chair