Support the Kīpahulu CBSFA’s final approval
Reading time: 2 minutes
The Kīpahulu community has one more hearing to become the islands’ third designated Community Based Subsistence Fishing Area. The Kīpahulu Community Based Subsistence Fishing Area (CBSFA) will have its final Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting this Friday, January 12, 9am. Please take a moment to support the Kīpahulu community today!
Written testimony by Thursday, January 11, 9am
Email to BLNR.testimony@hawaii.gov
Subject line: Testimony for agenda item F-2
Sample testimony from Kīpahulu ʻOhana here
*If you would also like to provide virtual verbal testimony, please indicate so in your email and further instructions will be emailed to you
In-person verbal testimony
Friday, January 12, 9am
Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl St., Room 132
Sign up on the sign in sheet outside the conference room door
More about CBSFAs from the Maui Nui Makai Network
CBSFAs are legally designated areas where the community and state government work together to protect and support traditional and customary native Hawaiian fishing practices that feed the families who rely on coastal resources. Hawaiʻi’s CBSFA designation formally recognizes local communities as valued partners in protecting natural resources, and reaffirms and protects traditional and customary practices for subsistence and culture.
The idea to designate an area as a CBSFA comes from communities that have identified unsustainable practices or want to protect healthy resources for future generations. Each community goes through the same designation process, developing their own set of rules and management proposals pertaining to their specific place.
With final approval on Friday, Kīpahulu, Maui will be come the third CBSFA, following Hāʻena, Kauaʻi, and Mīloliʻi, Hawaiʻi.
More about Kīpahulu ʻOhana’s CBSFA
Families in East Maui continue to maintain a significantly subsistence-based lifestyle with traditional fishing, hunting and farming practices updated with appropriate modern methods and tools. Families refer to the ocean as their icebox and the mountain as their pantry, and to this day many families supplement their diets through subsistence practices, and actively pass on these traditions to the younger generations.
Over the years, as negative impacts of unsustainable harvesting have caused noticeable decline in the abundance of resources, community members have become increasingly frustrated with the one-size-fits-all rules that don’t account for local biological, ecological and socioeconomic factors. This has resulted in conflicts between users, renegade actions to protect resources, and continuing decline of resources.
The proposal to designate Kīpahulu moku as a CBSFA was one of the priority actions identified by the community to address these issues. Kīpahulu initiated the CBSFA process in 2016 and is just one step away from final approval.