Forests for Hawaii's Future
Senator Daniel K. Akaka Address
KEYNOTE ADDRESS OF SENATOR DANIEL K. AKAKA
FORESTRY 2000 CONFERENCE January 12, 2000
Aloha, and Happy New Year. Welcome to a new century and a new millennium.
Wasn’t it exciting to celebrate the dawn of the third millennium? The enthusiasm is only beginning to subside.
As the new year marched from time zone to time zone, the world watched as celebrations spread from culture to culture around the globe. Whether it was Fijian natives who were the first to ring in the New Year, Times Square revelers watching the crystal ball drop, or crowds cheering at Aloha Tower when the clock struck midnight, it was a marvelous global millennium event.
We bid goodbye to the 20th century and dream of the changes that the next hundred, or the next thousand years will bring. No one knows what the future holds, but we know that the future will depend upon us. Certainly the future of Hawaii’s forests rests in our hands. That is why we gather for the Forestry 2010 conference.
After the celebrations end, after the excitement dims and the euphoria fades, after the musicians pack up and the champagne loses its fizz, the real work of shaping enduring legacies for a new millennium begins.
In the days ahead, you will review the promise of the Hawaii Tropical Forest Recovery Act and its action plan, and debate the future of sustainable forestry in Hawaii. I ask you to remember that the resource you are discussing cannot be understood in a time frame of years, or even decades. Our forests have natural life-cycles that are measured in centuries. Hawaii’s tropical forests are truly a millennium resource. They demand resource planning on an equally grand scale.
In the seven years since the Act was signed into law, many people have thanked me for my efforts to enact tropical forestry legislation. While I am genuinely grateful for their appreciation, the legislation was just a beginning. The hard work began when the task force assembled to develop an action plan. Hundreds of individuals and many organizations contributed time and ideas to this effort, and produced 135 action items, many of which have become guiding principles for the management of Hawaii’s tropical forests.
The Tropical Forest Action Plan is as relevant today as when it was written six years ago. The core concepts of stewardship, sustainable development, habitat conservation, and sensitivity to community needs are sound principles that have achieved widespread acceptance in the national and global forestry consciousness since the Hawaii plan was released. You should take comfort knowing that the concepts expressed in the action plan reflect the mainstream of enlightened forest planning today. The broad course you charted in 1994 is clearly the right one.
The experience of many other public and private forestry ventures also affirms the concepts in the Action Plan. Sustainable principles have emerged as a growing force in the forestry industry. Sustainable forest management in general, and forest certification in particular, have transformed industry management practices in the past five years.
Certified wood products are now synonymous with environmentally sound forest practices. Because certification focuses the attention of consumers and producers on the health of the forest where the product is harvested, certification has become a driving force in the sustainable movement today. Since the Hawaii Tropical Forest Recovery Act was enacted, 40 million acres in 30 countries have received a certification seal.
Advocates of certification and other sustainable practices must recognize, however, that these principles usually impose higher costs on landowners than conventional techniques, especially in the near-term. If government, local communities, and the non-governmental sector fail to vigorously support enlightened landowners who employ sustainable methods, we should not be surprised if certification and sustainable forestry fail. We all have an obligation to help sustainable forestry ventures achieve sufficient returns on raw and finished wood products to ensure their success, and the success of communities that surround them.
These are some of the changes since the forestry legislation was enacted. As you develop a 21st Century plan for Hawaii’s forests, I ask you to imagine how much change is possible over the course of one hundred or one thousand years. Consider the remarkable changes we have witnessed in other areas, such as communications. At the beginning of the last millennium few of the world’s inhabitants could read or write. The first printed books did not appear until 400 years later. But today, communications travel at Internet speed.
As you consider the future of Hawaii’s forests, I urge you to think in bold terms. Set aside short-term agendas. Strive for millennium accomplishments. Look far beyond the walls of this conference room and imagine what vibrant, dynamic, and healthy forests will mean for our economy, our environment, and our children.
