The “rule of law” is the legal principle that laws should govern a nation, as opposed to arbitrary decisions of individual government officials.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources has a long history of making arbitrary decisions that fail to uphold its mission to 鈥渆nhance, protect, conserve and manage Hawaii鈥檚 unique and limited natural, cultural and historic resources held in public trust …鈥

For example, the Hawaii Supreme Court determined that the DLNR issued an invalid permit which led to the unlawful development of the TMT project. Simultaneously the DLNR was applying other laws selectively to prevent citizens from protesting the injustice of this disregard for the rule of law by a government agency in not following contested case hearing laws.

DLNR officers arrest a Thirty Meter Telescope demonstrator last June. Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Meanwhile,聽the DLNR is totally failing to do anything to protect or conserve the mainstay of the islands’ ecosystem, the mighty ohia tree.

For three years now, forestry scientists have been reporting on the rapid ohia death issue that they describe as 鈥渁 house on fire,鈥 with contaminated areas rapidly spreading across the island. This is a disaster in progress that is threatening to destroy 80 percent of all existing ohia stands.

As the apponted “protectors” of hundreds of thousands of acres of ohia trees the DLNR has done nothing to prevent this ecosystem collapse.

What the DLNR has done is聽to spend $57,000 on more firepower for its enforcement division, which sounds very much like it is replacing the rule of law with the rule of the gun.

If the DLNR enforcement division truly worked to 鈥減rotect and conserve鈥 and followed the rule of law, then it should have been investigating unlawful activities within its聽own department and not allowing big corporations to destroy our conservation lands without legal permits.

Perhaps what the DLNR needs is not more guns, but more integrity.

Community Voices aims to encourage broad discussion on many topics of community interest. It鈥檚 kind of a cross between Letters to the Editor and op-eds. This is your space to talk about important issues or interesting people who are making a difference in our world. Column lengths should be no more than 800 words and we need a current photo of the author and a bio. We welcome video commentary and other multimedia formats. Send to news@civilbeat.org.聽The opinions and information expressed in Community Voices are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.

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