Big Islanders say "no!" to pulptree plantations
"yes!" to local-based economy
On Nov 15, after 14½ hours of often intense public testimony, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources unexpectedly rejected a plan to lease 4,400 acres of state-owned Big Island land to Oji Paper Co. to set up pulptree plantations. This stunning turnabout of a project initiated by Big Island Mayor Stephen Yamashiro, embraced by Governor Cayetano, and strongly promoted by Michael Wilson, head of DLNR, marks a turning point in Hawai`i's economic and political life.
This was supposed to be a done-deal, given all the support Oji Paper of Japan had from top government officials. But 135 people had signed up to give public testimony before the Land Board, with only a handful of residents and organizations supporting the project. Leaders of 31 Big Island organizations — ranging from the Farm Bureau, to the Friends of Hamakua, Kona Outdoor Circle, North Hilo Agriculture Coop, the Hamakua District Development Council, and Hawaiian groups, had signed onto a common statement of opposition. Freshman Councilman Dominic Yagong bravely stood against Oji Paper and their powerful political friends, and instead backed using public lands for local farmers. Many detailed and well documented critiques of the pulptree plantation project were presented, along with proposals for alternative uses for the lands.
No more plantations wanted. All this came from nine months of intense organizing by the Hamakua community against a plan to lease 10,000 acres of public lands for 55 years, at incredibly cheap rents, to Japan's largest paper manufacture, Oji Paper Co. Oji was looking at more than 100,000 acres, in all. But Big Islanders rejected the idea of recreating another 19th century plantation system, this time one owned by foreigners who only intend to grow low-value pulpwood trees. Residents instead want the thousands of acres of former Hamakua Sugar land turned into diversified agriculture, family farms, and high-value hardwood forests that could supply profitable building, furniture, and crafts materials.
Instead of growing a cheap export crop, with few jobs and with most profits going to outsiders, Islanders want to control their own economic fate. They want to meet local needs first, not be hooked tightly into the ups and downs of the global economy.
"No!" to banana republic politics. Breaking political dependency is the second message coming out of this battle. The people of Hamakua are no longer willing to be servile workers, the low-paid pawns under a system where a few powerful people work out private deals behind closed doors. Mayor Yamashiro — with a prior business connection with Oji Paper Co. — had pushed this low-income producing, environmentally destructive, pulpwood plantations scheme, without prior or meaningful consultation with the County Council or affected communities. Governor Cayetano had meet with Oji officers, and signed a preliminary letter of agreement for state lands, in March, yet refused to meet with representatives from the Hamakua community.
The Hamakua story is that Big Islanders will no longer passively accept commands from the top down. They want instead open and responsive government, with full participation in decisions that affect them.
The emerging new sustainable economy Hawai`i Islanders are creating is founded on true diversity of economic opportunities, is locally owned, and involves partnerships between private businesses, community organizations, and government. Economic decisions incorporate environmental, quality of life, community vitality, and local values, not just bottomline dollars. Farming means family farms that grow many crops for a variety of markets, and value-added processing that captures more of the retail food dollar for the farmer. Forestry means growing high-value hardwoods, sawmills that produce lumber and valuable plywood veneers, and furniture factories and craft shops. Eco-tourism builds on natural and historical attractions that are unique to Hawai`i.
And the community, not well-connected insiders, will decide what is done.
Establishing community-base economic development is a daunting task. Moving from conceptual ideas to concrete programs requires, besides a highly motivated citizenry, bringing together local knowledge of the land, with expertise in business planning and financing. Perhaps most important is crafting a process open to, and trusted by, Hamakua's residents.
After many years of top-down government, ordinary citizens in Hawai`i are demanding more accountability from their elected officials. This devolution of authority is going even further, as new forums of decision-making are being created that involve citizen participation. In its most democratic form of policy-making, widely representative members of the community come together in a problem-solving mode to define issues, gather reliable information about the topic, arrive at consensual solutions, and follow-up with monitoring and oversight authority. These "citizen taskforces," "working groups," "community summits," "advisory committees," etc., mark the future of greater democratic governance. These new processes are helping to build a "civil society" in the Islands that not only better solves specific problems, but enhances communal attachments and civic engagement by average citizens.
The last two sections were not included in the Honolulu Advertiser article.