Support Community-Based Subsistence Fishing Areas: Kīpahulu & Miloliʻi

Please take a moment to support two Community-Based Subsistence Fishing area proposals:

From Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo:

Presently there is no other law like the Hawaiʻi Community-based Subsistence Fishing Area law. This law allows a community to co-govern and co-manage their fishery in partnership with the state based on the Native Hawaiian customary and traditional subsistence practices of a place.

Building a movement for community driven mālama ʻāina mauka to makai cannot grow without pathways like this. Efforts for similar community to government co-governance efforts are emerging up mauka and may one day need similar policies to support them. Efforts makai can lead to shifts in policy, resource flows, relationships, culture, habits and mindsets that better support work across the state in sea and on land.

Kīpahulu, Maui

From Kīpahulu ʻOhana:

On June 7 from 5:30-7:30pm, there is an important opportunity to learn more and share your feedback at a DAR-led virtual Public Scoping Meeting.⁠ Registration required. You can register here.

We view this scoping meeting as a celebration of our community, and just a like a party, it is a time to come together! There are only a handful of times during this designation process where community participation is crucial, and this is one of them.⁠ ⁠

During the Zoom, there will be opportunities to speak up in support or with comments/questions about the proposed CBSFA rules. It's helpful to be specific at this meeting, and even if you’re going to say I support everything in this plan, it's important to attend!⁠ ⁠

Mahalo for your kōkua and solidarity, and we hope to see and hear you there.

Miloliʻi, Hawaiʻi Island

The Board of Land and Natural Resources will be hearing the proposed rule package for the Miloliʻi CBSFA this Thursday, June 9, meeting starts at 9am but the rules are later on the agenda. With the board’s approval, the rules will then go to the Governor for final approval to become law.

Please take a moment to submit written testimony in support. Submit testimony to blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov and watch the hearing live on the DLNR YouTube Livestream channel. Below is sample testimony based on guidance from April’s meeting:

[ 1. Introduction of yourself ]

Aloha, my name is ––– and Iʻm from –––.

[ 2. Your pilina (relationship) to Miloliʻi, or a memory of the traditions of your family or community to an area or your support of community-based natural resource management generally. Perhaps a brief story of that relationship. ]

My grandpa used to bring me here to Miloliʻi and I met Mr. Eugene Kaupiko who ran the store. I learned how to fish here, and I caught my first …

[ 3. State your position of support and why. ]

Mahalo for this opportunity. I am testifying in support of the rules package for Miloliʻi Community-Based Subsistence Fishing Area.

The people of Miloliʻi are generational stewards of their place. They can trace their kūpuna to a time before western contact and they were well established throughout the area of Kapalilua. Today, they continue to ʻauamo their kuleana to mālama ʻāina, caring for the marine resources of their place. The koʻa of their coastline are still fed and maintained by ʻohana of Miloliʻi, much in the manner that their kūpuna did.

CBSFA designation was granted to Miloliʻi in 2005. In 2019, Kalanihale represented their subsistence fishing village, informed DLNR they were ready to create a rules package. Today, I am here providing testimony in support of the rules package.

Their traditional and customary fishing practices are reflected in the rules package, placing kapu on unsustainable harvest methods.

The landmarks used by their kūpuna are the same landmarks they use today, and some of which have become part of the rules package as boundaries for CBSFA subzones.

Miloliʻi held extensive outreach, public scoping, and peer review with various communities, partners, and colleagues from fishery networks to share their narrative, marine management plan, and proposed rules.

Miloliʻi set forth compelling protection standards in their narrative and rules package which align well and reflect the conservation values and needs of neighboring conservation lands.

Grounded in a common goal to provide protection for ʻāina and natural resources, Miloliʻi cultivated respectful and trusted relationships with agencies, partners, and communities that reflect their strong sense of mālama ʻāina and supported other communities alike throughout the pae ʻāina such as Hāʻena (Kauaʻi), Moʻomomi (Molokaʻi), Kīpahulu (Maui), and Hoʻokena (Hawaiʻi).

Miloliʻi is consistent in its narrative, proposed CBSFA rules package and practices, and further demonstrates their preparedness to co-manage and co-govern the CBSFA with agencies and partners.

A CBSFA Marine Management organizational structure will be established to maintain the community’s collaborative relationships with agencies and partners.

Mohala Nā Konohiki Miloliʻi will represent the community’s place-based knowledge and narrative, continuing their traditional methods of area monitoring and surveying and incorporating modern methods and data.

Miloliʻi’s CBSFA Marine Management will retain an in residence marine specialist to provide advisory support and training to Mohala Nā Konohiki.

[ 4. Mahalo ]

Miloliʻi is a cultural kīpuka in South Kona and its people are mauliauhonua, well established and descendants of old chiefs of Kapalilua. I support this subsistence fishing community in their kuleana to mālama ʻāina and feed people now and into the future. This rules package reflects the sound rationale of their traditional fishing practices and expresses their intimate relationship they have with their ʻāina.

Mahalo for allowing me to provide this testimony of support for Miloliʻi CBSFA, aloha!