Citizens to keep eye on environment
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
Government and conservation groups are calling on citizens to help protect their local environments with a new program patterned after the Neighborhood Watch crime-prevention effort.
For more information on the program, e-mail maukamakaiwatch@yahoo.com.
"We have found in our work throughout the Pacific that local communities are well-suited to protect coastal and marine resources because they live in daily contact with these resources," said Scott Atkinson, Hawai'i program director for the Community Conservation Network.
Mauka-Makai Watch
Participants in the Mauka-Makai Watch program will keep an eye out for suspicious activity along shorelines and in forest areas and report possible violations to law enforcement personnel.
Organizers said the goal is not so much to increase enforcement, but to see that people understand the regulations and comply with laws that protect Hawai'i's natural resources.
"It's going under the assumption that most people want to follow the rules. They just don't know what they are," said Kim Hum of The Nature Conservancy, one of the sponsors of Mauka-Makai Watch, along with the conservation network.
Other sponsors are the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Hawai'i Wildlife Fund.
The "makai" portion of the effort will be patterned after existing programs at Miloli'i and Wai'opae on the Big Island, and one being developed at the
'Ahihi-Kina'u area on Maui. The "mauka" watch program will be developed by DLNR.
Mauka-Makai Watch aims to develop teams of residents who will receive training from the DLNR's enforcement branch in surveillance and ways to reduce disregard of conservation laws. Conservation groups will provide training in threats to resources.
"We've seen tremendous interest at the community level to help protect our coastal resources and upland forests," said Suzanne Case, Hawai'i executive director of The Nature Conservancy.
"We believe local communities in Hawai'i can really help to increase the amount of protection our natural resources receive," Case said.
The program will start with its makai focus, finding coastal communities whose residents want to help protect nearshore marine resources.
DLNR Chairman Peter Young said it simply makes sense to involve trained volunteers from various communities in resource protection.
"We want and need citizens to take more personal responsibility for protecting the resources," Young said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
