Native Hawaiians rally as University of Hawaii updates Mauna Kea plans

As the University of Hawaii seeks to update a plan that guides its ongoing management of Mauna Kea, Native Hawaiians who rallied Tuesday at the state Capitol were urged to support a measure that would remove UH from its role on the mountain in favor of a new stewardship authority.

Dancing, prayer, chant and song echoed around the Capitol as hundreds joined the “‘Aha Pule for Mauna Kea and All Sacred ‘Aina” “to stand in unity for a better Hawaii” and to call for “the continued health and protection of our mountains, for our freshwater sources, for our ocean and for clean air.”

Inside the Capitol, the House of Representatives approved House Bill 2024, which creates a new, independent entity to oversee management of the mountain.

The measure now faces an uncertain future in the Senate, which in 2021 declined to join in the process that created HB 2024, including the formation of the Mauna Kea Working Group.

Tuesday’s gathering at the Capitol was organized by Native Hawaiian members of the Mauna Kea Working Group, including Noe-Noe Wong-Wilson, Lanakila Mangauil and Shane Akoni Nelson.

The group worked for six months to create the report upon which HB 2024 was based. The measure calls on the new stewardship authority to develop a framework to limit astronomy development and create a plan to return the summit to its natural state.

Nelson urged the group Tuesday to contact their state senators and tell them to get behind the bill.

“We’re going to need support from the entire lahui (nation) for this,” Nelson told the throng Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the university is forging ahead in its role as steward of Hawaii’s tallest mountain, including the lands that hold the world-class observatories at the summit.

The university has announced it is seeking public input on an update to the 2009 Maunakea Comprehensive Management Plan, the management framework approved by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources for the Mauna Kea lands managed by UH.

The Comprehensive Management Plan is one of three tools that guide the UH Hilo Center for Maunakea Stewardship, the unit responsible for lands managed by UH on the mountain. The other two are the Maunakea Master Plan and the Maunakea Administrative Rules, both of which were updated recently.

UH is now asking for input on a supplement to the Comprehensive Management Plan, which updates management actions listed in the plan. Key updates to the plan’s management actions, according to the university, include:

>> Improving coordination with the Native Hawaiian community while protecting the mountain’s cultural, natural and scientific resources.

>> Incorporating potential approaches to access management in order to minimize the potential impacts of activities and uses.

>> Refining the management of activities and uses within developed areas to reduce potential impacts.

Comments can be made at MaunakeaStewardship.org through March 31. The website offers information and instructions on providing feedback online, via telephone messages and by mail.

The draft plan supplement will eventually go to the UH Board of Regents before landing at the Land Board for final approval later this year.