Hawai`i Tropical Forest Recovery Act
Concepts, Recommendations and Action Items

GUIDING CONCEPT 7

PLANNING, INVENTORIES AND MONITORING
Develop, conduct, and maintain multi-resource inventories and monitoring programs of Hawaii's natural and commercial forests. There is a particular need to gather data in a multi-resource format, and to design inventory systems that will permit efficient updating. Also critical is the need to develop a centralized system to coordinate and integrate resource information from the various agencies and organizations that collect resource data.

RECOMMENDATION 19: Update or complete and implement management plans for all publicly owned and managed forests.

SPECIFIC ACTION ITEMS:

Increase funding for agencies to conduct inventories and surveys to provide relevant information for development of management plans. Local communities and organizations should be involved in identification of the type of data to be collected and used in the plans, and in the development of management options.
Complete management plans. When possible, planning for all publicly owned forests in a region should be coordinated to address the need to look at resource planning at a regional or landscape level. One possible method of developing management plans is contracting the effort out to private sector planners who would work with all interested parties. Plans should be comprehensive and specific, and contain measurable management objectives.

Community understanding and involvement in the development of management plans can be encouraged through the use of forest partnership working groups, as described in recommendation 1. Hold public meetings at convenient locations and times to allow for public input and review of forest management plans.
Review and update, when necessary, management plans and resource databases at least every 6 years.

RECOMMENDATION 20: Strengthen the capacity of Hawaii's public land management agencies to conduct resource inventories, surveys, and monitoring, and to manage the resulting data.

SPECIFIC ACTION ITEMS:

Adequately fund and complete forest resource inventories. These inventories should be conducted cooperatively between agencies and organizations and updated on a regular basis.
Coordinate statewide inventory and monitoring activities through the Hawaii Conservation Biology Initiative's Secretariat.
Establish Geographic Information System data sharing policies between state, federal and private entities.
Establish a clearinghouse for forest inventory, survey, and monitoring information that would be a focal point for disseminating results of inventories to interested agencies and organizations.
Address the issue of gaining access to private lands for field verification of inventory plots to ensure that private landowners' concerns are satisfactorily resolved.

RECOMMENDATION 21: Require regular monitoring in all programs and activities to evaluate the effectiveness of management practices, outreach efforts, research projects, economic investments, and other forest-related activities.

SPECIFIC ACTION ITEMS:

Extend proposed natural area biological resource and threat monitoring system statewide. Modify protocols as necessary, including increased use of remote sensing.
Conduct periodic comprehensive, statewide polls by islands and districts to obtain accurate data on forest-related perceptions, uses, and needs from a representative cross-section of Hawaii's people.
Develop and periodically apply a benefit/cost analysis to resource allocation within at least one of Hawaii's demonstration forests, using a long-term horizon and fully recognizing both quantitative and qualitative outputs provided by a healthy forest (scenery, air quality, etc.).
Require periodic monitoring to evaluate effectiveness in all publicly funded natural resource management and conservation projects.

Hawai`i Tropical Forest Recovery Act
Concepts, Recommendations and Action Items

GUIDING CONCEPT 7

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Hawai`i Tropical Forest Recovery Act Concepts, Recommendations and Action Items

GUIDING CONCEPT 7

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Hawai`i Tropical Forest Recovery Act
Concepts, Recommendations and Action Items