Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 10, 1 October 2005 — Investing in conservation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Investing in conservation

Amid Hawai'i's booming real estate market, efforts are being made to save culturally important lands by buying them

By Sterling Klni Wūng Publicatiūns Editor Wao Kele o Puna isn't the only culturally important site that has made its way onto the state's booming real estate market. Native Hawaiians are seeing more and more of their cultural sites, such as Kaua'i's 580-year-old Menehune Fishpond, going up for sale as land owners try to capitalize on skyrocketing property prices. Fortunately, there are efforts underway to save such properties from development. The

Trust for Puhlie Land (TPL), the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that helped put together the Wao Kele o Puna conservation agreement, has recently taken a leading role in this movement. TPL seeks out federal grants, teams up with private organizations and raises funds to fulfill its mission of conserving land for people. Since it opened an office in Honolulu in 1998, TPL has orchestrated eight land acquisitions in Hawai'i. Iosh Stanbro, the trust's Hawai'i project manager, said that while the organization tries to encourage land-

owners to sell their properties for the right reasons, they also want communities to take a proactive approach to protecting the lands in their backyards. "It's incumbent upon eommunities to get educated on the financial resources that are available to them to buy and protect their lands," he said, pointing out that there are land trusts on nearly every island. "[TPL] is just another tool in the toolbox." Earlier this year, the state added another tool to that box. In lune, Gov. Linda Lingle signed the Legacy Lands Act, whieh

allows the state to use funds from an increased real-estate conveyanee tax to purchase lands for conservation. Although most environmentalists lauded the passage of the act, some say that only a limited amount of land ean be protected with the approximately $3.5 million a year the state estimates will be placed in the Legacy Lands Fund. Nevertheless, state Department of Natural Resources Director Peter Young has big plans for the program. He said that when the state considers what properties it should purchase with money from the fund, it shouldn't be limited to

only lands that are on the market. "We should approach landowners who have land that we think is an important resource to preserve," he said. With no end to the state's real estate boom in sight, and with other culturally significant sites soon to be on the market (think Moanalua Gardens), coimnunities ean now pursue several options to preserve places that are valuable to them. Said Blake McElheny of 0'ahu's North Shore Community Land Trust: "People who have the most at stake have opportunities to define for themselves the future of their communities."

MĀLAMA 'ĀINA • CARING FDR ĪHE LANŪ

Mū'olea Point (left) and the lands surrounding Mo'okini Heiau (above) are two culturally important sites that will be . protected from developmenf thanks to land purchases. Photos: KWO Archive