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

GUIDING CONCEPT 8

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Support and expand the forest products industry and create sustainable, commercial forests to promote economic development and diversification within the state. Actions considered instrumental to this guiding concept include management for sustainability of all forest resources and assurance of the right to use.

RECOMMENDATION 22: To promote economic diversification within the state, create sustainable commercial forests by supporting the existing forest products industry, and taking advantage of new opportunities in the state as a result of land becoming available following economic declines in sugar, pineapple and, to a lesser extent, cattle ranching.

SPECIFIC ACTION ITEMS:

Create sustainable commercial forests on appropriate private and public lands. Cooperation between government agencies, private landowners, and potential investors will be needed to achieve an integrated forest products industry. Small landowner participation and forest cooperatives should be encouraged.
Provide fair and just compensation for public use of private resources. If economic development and forest management are to take place, landowners need the right to use their forest resources. If the right to use forest resources such as timber is denied, landowners need to be compensated for immediate and future losses (see recommendation 12).
Conduct a comprehensive review of the regulatory environment for forest management activities, and work to improve the regulatory environment to allow forest management to be economically feasible. Identified improvements include:
1. Developing and implementing tax reforms regarding disincentives for landowners to develop or maintain forest land (see recommendation 13);
2. Developing and implementing insurance reform, both tort and workmen's compensation, to encourage the expansion of forest-related employment opportunities; and
3. Modify existing procedures that inhibit beneficial land management practices in state conservation districts.
Conduct a comprehensive market analysis to identify the major opportunities for the development and expansion of Hawaii's forest products industry, and the costs and benefits of each. Some already identified opportunities include the expansion of wood processing, product manufacturing opportunities as value-added activities, and the creation of new forest resource industries, ranging from biopharmaceuticals to ecotourism.
Support and expand the inventory and assessment of the use of existing koa resources, including replanting koa for a sustainable resource, and the resolution of issues preventing selective harvest (see recommendations 8 and 11).
Encourage the privatization of public land management activities to encourage forest-related economic development, such as contracting noxious weed control, tree planting, and inventories.
Conduct research to enhance the economic development of Hawaii's forest resource industry, including research on: koa genetics; alien species control; methodologies for quantitative and qualitative analysis of costs and benefits associated with forest resources; restoration of threatened and endangered species; economic analysis of production of forest resources, such as maile, bees and honey, and valuable hardwoods.
Develop incentives for private landowners for watershed improvement and management (see recommendation 23).
Develop islandwide or regional land use planning processes that include identifying possible forest resource management conflicts with other land uses and land users (see recommendation 1).

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

GUIDING CONCEPT 8

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

GUIDING CONCEPT 8

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