BIL 194 Draft 01 2008-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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PUNA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN PROPOSED AMENDMENTS Chapter 2 MALAIVIA I KA `AINA Despite the destruction of native forest and other resources that has occurred in Puna, and the potential for much more damage through land development in the extensive subdivisions, as described in Chapter 1, there remains a good opportunity not only to protect what is left, but even reverse some of the historical impacts. Puna contains vast acreage of largely intact natural area that comes under the protection of Federal and State regulations; for example: • The western portion of Puna is dominated by Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the adjoining upper east Hawaii rainforest. The Park was designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Biosphere Reserve in 1980, reflecting its value for research and protection of evolutionary resources, and as a World Heritage Site in 1987, citing its geological resources. • The State of Hawaii designated two areas adjoining the Park as Natural Area Reserves Kahauale`a and Pu`u Maka`ala meeting the same standards of resource quality and protective management as the Biosphere Reserve. • The State also manages several other forest reserves in Puna comprising 131,659 acres: Upper ["tea] Waiakea Forest Reserve, [`T.-C[iakeCC] Waiakea Forest Reserve, [91a` a] `Ola`a Forest Reserve (Mountain View Section), [Nanawal Nanawale Forest Reserve, Malama Ki Forest Reserve, Keau`ohana Forest Reserve, and the recently acquired Wao Kele O Puna Forest Reserve.4 • The State Conservation District, which encompasses almost all of the above areas as well as some additional lands, is organized' as a regulatory hierarchy under the jurisdiction of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). There are five subzones of the Conservation District, each intended to provide a degree of regulatory protection that reflects the intactness or relative significance of the resources that are present in those subzones. About half of Puna's Conservation District is in the Protective Subzone, which is the most restrictive of the five subzones in terms of allowable uses. The remainder is in either the Limited Subzone, which is designated for areas with potential high risk of natural hazard, or the Resource Subzone, which is generally applied to less intact forest reserves. • The Conservation District also includes the submerged lands beneath coastal waters. DLNR's Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands therefore addresses shoreline and 4 The Wao Kele O Puna Forest Reserve is owned by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs but managed by DLNR's Division of Forestry and Wildlife. 2-1