Carissa Cabrera is the founder and CEO of The Conservationist Collective, a conservation media firm based in Hawaii that works to scale ocean-based conservation solutions.
Jack Kittinger is a vice president in Conservation International’s Center for Oceans and a research professor in Arizona State University’s School of Ocean Futures and Global Futures Laboratory.Â
They create a mechanism to generate large-scale funding that will help us offset visitor impacts.
Hawaii is home to some of the most unique landscapes, most biodiverse oceans, and a beautiful culture. The natural abundance found here has enabled the people of Hawaii to feed their families, create economic opportunity, and build thriving communities.
These same resources attract millions of tourists here every year and are at risk of being lost forever from an escalating set of threats we are ill-equipped to respond to, given the vast under-investment made toward management and stewardship.
If we want to protect these vital resources that make our home so special, we need to take urgent and innovative action now.
Visitor green fees offer a unique solution to these challenges. They create a mechanism to generate large-scale funding that will help us offset visitor impacts, invest in ecosystem stewardship and the visitor experience, and create high-value green jobs in our communities. More than a dozen visitor destinations already implement this approach, including Palau, the Galápagos Islands, and Aotearoa New Zealand.
In places where annual visitors the number of year-round residents, it is only fair to ask visitors to contribute to conserving the places they experience during their stay.
As Hawaii residents, we see the consequences of chronic underfunding in natural and cultural resources. We underinvest in these resources by , according to an estimate evaluated by Conservation International.
These consequences come in the form of bleached reefs, disappearing beaches, and critically endangered native species. These parts of our environment uphold essential elements of our communities and culture — the places we fish in, work in, play in, and share with our children, so they can one day share with theirs.
We have a responsibility to act now to protect and restore these precious resources for the enjoyment of our keiki and future generations.
Over the past several years, multiple green fee measures have been put forward in our State Legislature. This year, several measures, including and , would implement a mandatory $50 environmental license for visitors to offset their impacts on Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources.
If passed, this green fee program would generate approximately $400 million a year to support state agencies, community nonprofits, and other organizations working to protect our environment through conservation and natural resource management projects.
As of this week, both SB 304 and HB 1162 have passed with amendments that ensure the policy approach for the fee is on secure legal footing. The proposed approach relies on the state’s licensing authority, a well-established mechanism used for other activities like hunting and camping, and ensures that fees collected are restricted to their purpose: offsetting visitor impacts on natural resources.
Fortunately, our leaders also recognize that a visitor green fee is a comprehensive solution. We applaud the legislative leadership who are advancing green fee measures, and and his administration who are similarly dedicated to supporting this approach.
The visitor green fee would be an important step in supporting a more regenerative tourism industry that brings us together around the same goal: ensuring the Hawaii we call home is protected so its natural beauty and cultural resources can be experienced for generations to come.
As these measures continue to be shaped, we urge our legislative leaders to reexamine the inclusion of the Environmental Legacy Commission, which was removed from the bills through the amendment process. A commission made up of a diverse set of community and industry representatives to help advise on the use of funds is a valuable framework that has proven to be successful in Hawaii.
For example, the Legacy Land Conservation Commission is comprised of a diverse set of representatives who help advise the Department of Land and Natural Resources on the use of funds to help protect lands that hold important value. Inclusion of the Environmental Legacy Commission, in an advisory capacity, will also help to uphold transparency, maximize impact, and ensure that a diversity of stakeholders are at the table to help guide the Department, ensuring the program’s success.
Additionally, we hope that if the fee is passed into law, the DLNR will explore ways to exempt non-resident kanaka maoli (indigenous Native Hawaiians) from the visitor impact fee. We encourage our community members to continue to share their perspectives with legislative leadership, so this program is positioned to make effective, lasting change for the better.
We have a responsibility to safeguard what makes Hawaii “Hawaii.” If we continue to delay meaningful action, we will pass this burden to our keiki or lose the opportunity to implement solutions at all.
This is the year to act boldly and collectively. Let us come together this legislative session to support SB304 and HB1162 , to shape a sustainable visitor green fee program so we can restore what has been lost, protect what we have now, and ensure that the irreplaceable parts of our home are able to thrive for generations to come.
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Carissa Cabrera is the founder and CEO of The Conservationist Collective, a conservation media firm based in Hawaii that works to scale ocean-based conservation solutions.
Jack Kittinger is a vice president in Conservation International’s Center for Oceans and a research professor in Arizona State University’s School of Ocean Futures and Global Futures Laboratory.Â
I totally agree that additional fees will help with saving the aina. But fees are not enough - we also need responsible management of those fees. Let's look at the huge amount of additional fees that have been collected from tourists at Hanauma Bay. These additional fees have not been spent on improving the education program, hiring more rangers or lifeguards (who can enforce the rules), or reduced the number of people in the water at any given time. The number of people admitted has slightly gone down, but this does not address the real problem of people in the water. And finally, we need to recognize that there are plenty of locals who do not treat the aina with respect and there are plenty of tourists who are respectful of our resources. A fee paid by tourists will not automatically save anything.
mtf1953·
1 year ago
I couldn't have said it better! So thoughtful, cogent and persuasive. I'm happy to testify to help the sustainability of our resources and have all who enjoy them (except Native Hawaiians) contribute.
Bobbie·
1 year ago
I'm extremely skeptical of the ability to effectively spend large sums of money to protect the environment from tourism, especially as the most effective method of protection seems to be to have less tourists (less impact vs more mitigation to try to offset impact).
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