Leg Alert: Support Fishpond Restoration
The 2024 legislative session is in full swing! HAPA is supporting a broad food systems policy agenda and we seek to provide timely actionable alerts so you can take action to transform our local food system!
Join us this session in supporting a broad array of bills designed to support local farmers, food producers, increase local food production, address inequities in our food system such as food insecurity, and support regenerative and indigenous farming/food production practices.
See more information below about HAPA’s 2024 FSFS policy agenda below and take action on our first legislative alert of the session in support of loko ʻia (fishpond) restoration!
About HAPA’s Fair & Sustainable Food Policy Agenda:
Our current food system is broken by design, supporting increasingly consolidated corporate profits at the expense of public and environmental health, climate and workers. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Transforming our local food system can address some of the most intractable problems facing our local communities. Because our food system is so broad, touching upon every facet of our lives, there is no one silver bullet solution. Policy advocacy is one tool in our toolbox for creating change. HAPA supports a broad food and agriculture policy agenda that seeks to uplift a variety of complimentary solutions along our food system. We seek to provide a comprehensive food systems policy agenda and timely, actionable legislative alerts for key bills moving through our legislative session.
View our 2024 Fair & Sustainable Food Systems Agenda
New to Legislative Engagement? Learn more about how to engage in the Legislative Session!
Make sure you have set up your account on the Hawaii State Legislature website. If you are new to the process, see this helpful page on legislative engagement 101 from the Public Access Room including a link on how to submit testimony!
Support HB2626: Take Action to Support the Restoration of Loko ʻia (Fishponds)
Why Is This Important?
Loko ‘Ia (fishponds) remain an important resource for feeding local communities and providing community and cultural connection. Healthy fishponds also support healthy nearshore fisheries. Although great progress has been made to streamline the permitting process for fishponds in the State, the leasing process remains complex, confusing, and difficult to navigate.
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to require the board of land and natural resources to create a standard lease application and programmatic environmental impact statement to further streamline the process for leasing government-owned Hawaiian fishponds.
What Does This Bill Do?
Appropriates funds to the Board of Land and Natural Resources to create a standard lease application and programmatic environmental impact statement to streamline the process of leasing government-owned Hawaiian fishponds, prioritizing community co-managed organizations and projects.
Take Action! Submit Testimony in Support of HB2626
HB262 has been scheduled for its first hearing in the House Water & Land Committee. See where and when to submit testimony below and sample talking points for your convenience. If you have time and a connection to this issue/policy consider personalizing your testimony!
House Committee on Water & Land (WAL)
Thursday, Feb 1, 2024 at 9:00am
Conference Room 430
State Capitol 415 South Beretania Street
Written Testimony is due Wednesday, Jan 31st at 9am
Sample Testimony:
Aloha Chair Ichiyama, Vice Chair Poepoe and Members of the Committee,
Please support HB2626. Loko ‘ia (fishponds) remain an important resource for feeding local communities and providing community and cultural connection. Healthy fishponds also support healthy nearshore fisheries. Although great progress has been made to streamline the permitting process for fishponds in the State, the leasing process remains complex, confusing, and difficult to navigate.
Loko ʻia are not only important food sources for our local communities but important cultural sites providing space for communities to gather, connect to place and mālama.
Supporting more streamlined leasing processes will accelerate Hawaiʻi’s local food production and food security goals while also supporting indigenous traditional and customary cultural practices and community resilience.
Mahalo for your consideration!
Your Name, Town
Submit testimony here(you will need to have a capitol.hawaii.gov account to submit testimony). You can submit written testimony and sign up to provide oral testimony remotely or in person.
About Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action
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The Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA) is deeply committed to championing social, economic, and environmental justice throughout Hawaiʻi. Recognizing the interconnected nature of food systems, we underscore that the challenges plaguing these systems are not isolated from broader social, economic, and environmental concerns. We believe in an integrated approach that addresses these interdependencies to create a just, equitable, and sustainable future for Hawaiʻi.
Contact: info@hapahi.org | (808) 212-9616
