Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 2, 1 ʻAukake 1994 — Report released on Hawaiian forest use and preservation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Report released on Hawaiian forest use and preservation

What's the best way to make use of - and at the same time mālama - the forests of Hawai'i? One plaee to look for answers is a report to Congress published last month by the Hawai'i Tropical Forest Recovery Task Force. The hui's findings and recommendations have been published as the "Tropical Forest Recovery Action Plan." Anyone interested may request a copy by calling 522-

8230. The task force was the creation of a bill introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka and passed by Congress in 1992. During the past year, the task force met with community members, native Hawaiians, researchers, resource managers, forest industry representatives and others to study current issues relating to Hawai'i's forests. The group's mission statement was "to develop strate-

gies for the long-term management, protection and utilization of existing and potential forest resources of the State of Hawai'i." The task force attempted to incorporate the Hawaiian perspective in its work, acknowledging that concepts such as aloha 'āina are ideally suited for the stewardship of Hawai'i's forests. The task force believes, according to the action plan's executive summary, "that when other uses are competing or incompatible with traditional native Hawaiian uses, that every effort should be made to sensitively address and incorporate cultural eoncerns and perspectives."