Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 2, 1 February 1985 — DHHL Land Swap; Native Forests [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DHHL Land Swap; Native Forests

Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawaii

As a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, as well as one who led over 50 Hawaiian men, women and children onto the Hiio Airport runway on Labor Day 1978, 1 strongly object to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Department of Land and

Natural Resources land exchange of Hilo, Waimea and Molokai Airports for Shafter Flats, Oahu. We risked our lives at Hilo Airport that day because "we were the landlords eome to collect the rent". As a result of the Labor Day 1978 incident, over a half million dollars a year has been paid to Hawaiian Homes in rent for ail three airports and OHA presently receives over $52,000 a year in rent for Shafter Flats. Why should we exchange for what we already receive benefits from?

If this fool-hardy exchange goes through, the native Hawaiian community will lose almost $320,000 a year and trade over 204 acres for 13 acres of land. It is a bad precedent to set. With displaced Hawaiians forced to live on the beach, we cannot afford to deplete our land base and revenues. Remember, DHHL has a waiting list of over 8,000 families. We Hawaiians and the OHA trustees should not allow this unwise action to be carried out against our people. As OHA trustees, it is our responsibility to be strong advocates for justice, and against this land exchange. We would otherwise not be fulfilling our responsibility to you, our Hawaiian constituents. Let us hope this exchange is retracted, thereby avoiding another Hilo Airport incident.

On another front, native people everywhere are suffering from the reckless exploitation of their aina and natural resources. Mears Island Clayoquot and Ahousat Indians in Port Alberni, British Columbia, are politically and legally protesting the proposed logging of their island whieh has been their spiritual, cultural and eeonomie base. Here in Hawaii, Campbell Estate, a kama'aina family, continues to allow Bio-Power, a malihini wood-chipping company, to turn native Ohi'a forests into chips to burn for electricity. It is a sin. Our irreplaceable native forest, sacred ohi'alehua treasured by our kupuna, home of the 'apapane, 'i'iwi, omao, i'o and endangered plants, is to be further threatened with extinction.

Dr. Dieter Mueller-Dombois, Professor of Botany from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, calls this forest "the best original or primary lowland rain forest left in Hawaii". Mueller-Dombois, considered the world's authority on Ohi'a, calls the forest on Campbell Estate land, "unique in the world". It should be OHA's responsibility to insure our native forests be protected from commercial exploitation for the sake of the present and future generations. Onee this pristine forest is gone, it will be an irreplaceable loss to our nation and people.

The land was bought by James Campbell who remained loyal to Hawaiian principles and Queen Liliuokalani whom he considered a righteous and benevolent sovereign. His heirs in shameful contrast enmeshed themselves in eontracts with Bio-Power Corps., whose business philosophy is alien to all that whieh we love most about Hawaii. Ua mau ke ea o ka'aina i ka pono, the words of our King Kamehameha III were a legacy to our people, and is OHA's responsibility to maintain. They should not just be the hallow words of a state motto, but direction for land-use in this state. Aloha aina. Malama pono.