The University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents on Thursday approved a supplement to UH’s management plan for Maunakea, despite potentially losing jurisdiction over the mountain before the end of the decade.
UH President David Lassner said during a regents meeting that amending the 2009 Comprehensive Management Plan is “the right thing to do,” even though UH may not be managing the Maunakea summit area after 2028, depending on whether Gov. David Ige signs a bill to reform how the mauna is managed.
“Until we see what happens (with the bill), UH is still responsible for the land until 2028, and we have an obligation to update the CMP,” Lassner said. “This will help guide whoever’s in charge.”
The CMP is UH’s management framework for the part of Maunakea currently managed by UH, and is separate from the Maunakea Master Plan, which also had a new draft approved by the regents earlier this year.
The draft CMP supplement largely leaves the 2009 CMP unchanged, merely replacing certain passages within the 2009 document. Most substantially, it significantly fleshes out a chapter of the 2009 plan that describes the management plans governing certain aspects of the land and the components of those plans.
While the chapter in the 2009 plan is 69 pages long, the updated CMP supplement would replace that chapter with more than 350 pages.
Many of the clarifications replace sections that were previously only one sentence long, and put greater focus on outreach to the Native Hawaiian community.
Most other changes proposed by the supplement would simply update terms to reflect progress on various UH and Department of Land and Natural Resources projects, or the new Maunakea Master Plan.
Many of the management actions listed in the 2009 CMP would not be changed at all.
Greg Chun, UH’s executive director of Maunakea Stewardship, told the regents that the CMP is “central to everything we do (on Maunakea)” and protects not only the mountain itself but everyone who visits the mountain for any reason.
“This is not a plan that just sits on a shelf. It never has been,” Chun said.
The regents did not discuss the CMP supplement Thursday, but voted unanimously in favor of it. The supplement must now be voted upon by the Board of Land and Natural Resources.
Meanwhile, House Bill 2024, which would create a new state agency to take over management of the Maunakea summit area from UH by 2028, awaits a decision by Ige.
Ige will announce whether he intends to veto it by June 27.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.