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Papahānaumokuākea plan readied
After dramatic decade of public comment,
calls for conservation management linger
Public meetings on the government's phone-book sized draft management plan for the remote stretch from Nihoa Island to Kure Atoll, proclaimed Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument by a 2006 executive presidential order, have been small and rather quiet.
This marks a sea change over the last eight years, ever since another presidential order in 2000 designated a marine reserve in the archipelago. The subsequent debate on how to best care for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, its coral reef ecosystem and habitat for rare and endangered creatures and its sacred Hawaiian sites triggered more than 57,000 citizens' comments during the earlier information-gathering process and also pitted environmental groups, government agencies and commercial fisheries against one another in thorny legal battles that led to court-ordered shut-downs of some fishing businesses.
“The current monument management plan is a conservation victory stemming from the public call for a true pu'uhonua in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,” said Marti Townsend, a spokesperson for KAHEA, the Hawaiian Environmental Alliance. But at a June 17 public meeting in He'eia, Townsend was quick to add that many people, including members of her group, feel that the plan can be improved to better meet the goals of wildlife protection.
“The plan makes no mention of a separate U.S. Navy environmental impact statement that proposes live-fire training exercises and ballistic-missile testing within waters around Nihoa Island,” said Townsend, referring to the monument's southernmost tip.
The 2006 monument proclamation exempts military activities from the regulation by the three co-trustee agencies, although the Navy is required to be responsible for mitigating any harmful environmental impacts resulting from its actions, according to the National Environmental Policy Act, said Townsend. KAHEA is urging monument co-trustees to take a stand against the portion of the Navy's EIS that deals with the marine wilderness of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The three co-trustees charged with managing the monument are the state of Hawai'i and U.S. Interior and Commerce departments.
Others who testified at the recent meetings have called for more assurance that the draft monument management plan for continued tourism at Midway Atoll be carefully scrutinized. It increases the cap on overnight visitors to 50 from 30 and allows for the continued day-only stops by cruise ship groups allotted four visits annually.
O'ahu resident Eve Anderson said at the He'eia meeting that she liked the plan's proposal to promote educational tours on Midway, but she said more attention should be paid to the island's deteriorating buildings and to developing “alternative ways to learn about Midway from afar.”
But Midway tourism is kept in check by limited airplane access to the island by small charter planes only, said Barbara Maxfield of the Department of Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Meanwhile, Midway visitors are encouraged to participate in environmental activities such as cleaning out invasive species, Maxfield added.
Making sure that scientists comply with the permits that allow them to work within the monument waters was also on the minds of some who have come out to the recent meetings. Some have called for a moratorium on the number of permits issued, while others have raised questions about possible violations of cultural protocols by researchers doing scientific work within areas considered sacred Hawaiian sites.
Wai'anae Harbor Master William Ailā said that oversight of scientific permits has increased under current monument management. The draft plan reiterates the criteria for scientific research to contribute information, which is key in making management decisions, said Ailā, a member of the volunteer Hawaiian Cultural Working Group, which provides recommendations to the monument co-trustees.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has a permanent seat on the seven-member monument management board and is involved in reviewing permit applications for cultural appropriateness.
KAHEA's Marti Townsend said her group would like for members of the cultural working group and other citizens' groups to also be given a permanent role in advising monument managers on research permits and other monument issues. “The (draft management) plan is revolutionary in many ways because it opens the way for so much public participation, but we want to make sure that there is lasting accountability for the regulations,” she said.
This gets no argument from Aulani Wilhelm of the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “The original driver to protect the Northwest Hawaiian Islands had to do with (curbing) commercial fisheries. This led to massive public input and more attention to other types of threats to wildlife. The management plan can only be made better if people stay engaged and continue to look for ways to protect the resources,” Wilhelm said.
View the draft monument management plan at public libraries or online at www.papahanaumokuakea.com.
Mail public comment to: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Box 50167, Honolulu, HI 96850 or email pmnm_mmp_comments@fws.gov before midnight of July 8.
The U.S. Navy has completed work and closed the official public comment period on the Hawai'i Range Complex EIS/Overseas EIS mentioned above. The EIS can be viewed at www.govsupport.us/hrc.
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