CRB Not Welcome: Unprecedented interim CRB rules passed in record time for Molokaʻi Nui A Hina

Molokaʻi may be known as the “Friendly Isle” in some circles, but if you are a coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) or reluctant regulator, its residents have made it very clear: No mess with Molokaʻi nō ka heke!

Pretty much everyone in Hawaiʻi by now has heard of the CRB, a highly invasive pest that has been declared “established” on Oʻahu, is spreading rapidly on Kauaʻi, and has proliferated so much in west Hawaiʻi Island that helicopters are now being deployed to survey for CRB infestations. 

Communities in these areas, alongside their respective invasive species committees and the CRB Response Team, among other organizations, are fighting tooth and nail to suppress and hopefully eradicate the beetle, although success seems a distant and, for Oʻahu especially, highly unlikely prospect.  

Molokaʻi is the last main Hawaiian island to not have been touched by the CRB, although the importation of plants and landscaping materials from the neighboring islands made the introduction and spread of the beetle a daily threat. The consequences should this occur would be transformative: by attacking not only niu, but other agriculturally and culturally significant trees and crops such as maia (banana), loulu, hala, papaya, and kalo, CRB could have devastating and generations-long impacts to Molokaʻi’s food security, native ecosystems, cultural integrity, and economy. 

Accordingly, Molokaʻi residents and Niu Now Molokaʻi representatives ʻAnakala Kunani and ʻAnakē Ipo Nihipali submitted a petition to the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, to adopt emergency, interim rules that would prohibit the importation of potted plants, mulch, gravel, and other potential CRB host material to the island - closing off a major pathway for the introduction of CRB beetles, larvae, and eggs to get to the island. 

However, the petition itself was unlikely to lead to timely regulatory action. Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity leadership have a long history of foot-dragging when it comes to taking any sort of regulatory action relating to biosecurity, so much so that the legislature added “Biosecurity” to the former Department of Agriculture’s name this past session, just to remind them of their essential role in our islands’ fight against invasive species. 

Notably, the department’s failure to adopt any rules prohibiting the sale or movement of CRB-infested mulch and other products for over a decade after the beetle was first found at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam likely contributed to its current spread across multiple islands.  

Accordingly, ʻAnakala Kunani and ʻAnakē Ipo, joined by leaders such as Aunty Lori Buchanan, Councilmember Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Representative Mahina Poepoe, and Senator Lynn DeCoite, rallied the islands’ homesteaders, farmers, cultural practitioners, teachers, business owners, and all who call Molokaʻi home, to voice their support for the proposed interim rules. 

They also used their networks to recruit Molokaʻi supporters from across Hawaiʻi, including groups like the Mālama Learning Center, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action, Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi, and the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, who in turn put out calls for support to all who did not want to see Molokaʻi fall to the CRB under our generations’ watch. 

A petition was also circulated, garnering over 1,000 signatures within a matter of weeks.

When a meeting on the petition was finally held by the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity, the expected protests from Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity officials could not overcome such a massive, unified front.  

At the initial meeting by the board to consider the proposed rules, a department staff recommendation to defer rulemaking until a statewide solution could be developed was readily recognized as a delay tactic. So was a staff suggestion that more meetings be held on Molokaʻi to ensure community buy-in - a premise that could not hold, given the voluminous number of Molokaʻi testifiers from all walks of life that had expressed unanimous support for the rules. Staff speculation about US Commerce Clause implications were also shut down by actual attorneys. 

At the end of the hours-long meeting, board member Henry Gomes made very clear that the years-long delays seen in other rulemaking proposals would not be acceptable, and the Board ordered staff to move the rules forward in the process - and to bring them back at the next month’s board meeting for final decisionmaking.  

The subsequent meeting by the Plants and Animals Advisory Committee saw similar resistance from department staff, and similar, overwhelming support for the proposed interim rules. 

This time, staff proposed an alternative rule that would only have prohibited the import of CRB host material from Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, and sections of West Hawaiʻi without a permit. 

As testifiers pointed out, the department’s permitting process is far from perfect, and is not able to address eggs or larvae. This watered-down alternative would have also been unenforceable, since anyone could simply move their products from a prohibited area to a non-prohibited area before sending these items to Molokaʻi. 

Moreover, the alternative rules were needlessly risky, given the ability of CRB to spread rapidly from infested to non-infested areas where they could then make their way into a Molokaʻi-bound shipment. 

Fortunately, the committee chose to recommend that the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity adopt the simple, clean, and most protective rule proposal from the petition, and not the alternative offered by department staff.

The final decision on the interim rule proposal took place on September 23. Following two hours of testimony, again in unanimous support, the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity ultimately voted to adopt the interim rules as put forward by ʻAnakala Kunani and ʻAnakē Ipo Nihipali. 

As noted by advocates, these rules were unprecedented and historic, both in their nature - proactively protecting an uninfested island, rather than reacting to known infestations - and in the incredible speed in which they were adopted.  

With the interim rules now in place, Molokaʻi’s residents have a fighting chance to keep their island CRB free. The Molokaʻi community now has a one-year window to develop and implement a longer-term solution, as well as explore economic development opportunities - such as the on-island production of mulch - created by their historic win.

The question remains: has the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity learned its lesson, and will it do its part to support and stand with Molokaʻi as it protects itself from CRB?

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