The long-awaited plan for private management of natural resources in the Big Island ahupua`a of Pu`uwa`awa`a has been submitted to the Board of Land and Natural Resources.
Ka `Ahahui `o Pu`uwa`awa`a submitted the plan in late January. The group is a non-profit whose board includes Peter Vitousek, a pre-eminent scientist in the field of conservation biology at Stanford University, his brother Randy, an attorney specializing in land use, former Land Board member and now Hawai`i County Planning Director Chris Yuen, and former Office of Hawaiian trustee Hannah Kihalani Springer, who is the group’s president.
“Our vision for Pu`uwa`awa`a is to reestablish the tradition of ahupua`a-based management to protect the natural and cultural resources of the Pu`uwa`awa`a region for present and future generations,” the group states. “While much of the forest is now gone, its remnants represent the greatest concentration of endangered species on the Big Island. Pu`uwa`awa`a is also rich in cultural resources, in scenic beauty, and in that rarest of resources, public-owned open space in the midst of the rapidly developing North Kona-South Kohala region.”
Among other things, the plan includes working with the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife in restoring some of the native forest and protecting lava tube systems.
The plan contains provision for enhanced public access. “However,” it says, “public access and use will be coordinated and integrated with natural resource conservation and restoration, ranching, hunting, fishing, cultural and educational activities, ecotourism, and ocean recreation. Our goal is to find a balance between these various uses that can then be implemented on other public lands and public leases.”
Ecotourism in the more mauka areas is intended to be a source of income that will allow other portions of the management plan to be carried out. The plan anticipates that a tour operator will be contracted to bring in the visitors and will pay an access fee to the group of 12 percent.
Rental of existing facilities would be another income source, while development and operation of a tent camp would be yet a third. Agricultural lots in certain dryland parts of the ahupua`a could generate income, with crops including gourds, dryland taro, sweet potato, pineapple, and other plants. Finally, the group anticipates receiving substantial support from several foundations.
Along the coast, the group’s plan calls for refurbishing the existing Loretta Lynn house for public benefit, providing public restrooms at or near the property, and allowing public access during the daytime over an unpaved road that is now generally locked near Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway.
Since last July, about 21,000 acres of the state land in the Pu`uwa`awa`a ahupua`a have been held in ranching under a one-year holdover of a lease formerly held by F. Newell Bohnett. Income to the state from the ranching activity is roughly $30,000 a year.
Harry Yada, state land agent for the Big Island, said he expects the plan to come before the Land Board within the next few weeks.
— Patricia Tummons
Volume 11, Number 9 March 2001
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