The Hawaii Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity on Tuesday decided to move forward on a proposed rule halting the shipment of plants to Molokai to protect the island from coconut rhinoceros beetles.
While the rule has yet to be voted on, the board decided it should go on to the next step of undergoing an advisory review.
Molokai is the last populated island in the state still free from the invasive pest, which has decimated palms across Oahu, reached the shores of Kauai, Maui, Hawaii island — and most recently, Lanai.
Kunani and Ipo Nihipali, who are part of the Niu Now Molokai movement, in late July filed a petition with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity asking for an interim rule prohibiting the transport of plants, soil, compost and other materials potentially hosting the invasive beetles from any other part of the state to the island of Molokai.
They are among a contingent of Molokai residents — as well as other residents statewide – urging the state to take immediate action.
“Niu (coconut) is our tree of life from childbirth to adulthood,” said Kunani Nihipali during testimony before the board Tuesday. “Niu has supported and connected native people with our ancestral lands as a symbol of abundance, unity, and fertility.”
It is a sacred plant, he said, that offers sustenance and shelter but is also part of spiritual and religious rites, and still used in ceremonies. The destruction of coconut palms caused by the arrival of coconut rhinoceros beetles would be a “botanical, ecological devastation.”
“We will be devastated generationally,” he said, breaking down during testimony.
Jonathan Ho, DAB’s plant quarantine branch manager, said while he supported the proposal’s intent, it would be “extremely precedent setting” as written and was “more restrictive than necessary” as drafted.
The state issued a number of interim rules in 2023 and again in 2024 restricting the movement of certain palm plants and compost from Oahu to other islands, to prevent the spread of CRBs.
“Normally, regulations are for infested areas to noninfested areas,” Ho said. “You do not normally prohibit from areas that are noninfested to noninfested. We’ve never done that before.”
He expressed concerns about about the effects of banning a “broad swath of goods” on the broader Molokai community, even when treated, and said they should have the opportunity to participate in the discussion.
Additionally, he said these interim rules should be considered for the entire state, including islands that are struggling to contain the beetles, and not just Molokai.
There was lengthy and sometimes emotional testimony from many Molokai residents, as well as farmers and homesteaders from Oahu, Kauai, and Hawaii island who have witnessed firsthand the destruction brought by the beetles, in support of the petition.
State Sen. Lynn DeCoite and state Rep. Mahina Poepoe also testified in support of the petition, calling for bold action without delay.
Poepoe pointed out that there is no agricultural inspector on Molokai, which had been proposed in a legislative bill that did not pass this year.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect an entire island from CRB,” Poepoe said.
Wayne Tanaka, director of Sierra Club Hawaii, also urged the board to take immediate action.
“If you wait to do some kind of statewide thing before you protect Molokai, it’s going to be game over,” he told the board. “It’s not going to happen in time.”
He called it a delaying tactic, along with the state’s written response that the interim rule might violate the Commerce Clause.
Tanaka told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the board’s decision Tuesday was a positive step forward, and that he was glad the board understood the urgency of the situation and acted on it.
Coconut rhinoceros beetles are a daily threat that continue to spread across Oahu, he said. Yet nurseries and landscaping companies continue shipping their products to neighbor islands, while the state recognizes it does not have the capacity to inspect every single item.
“That’s a clear and present threat,” he said. “We’re seeing CRB spread across Kauai and Hawaii island, and we’re getting reports of additional detections on Maui … As CRB continues to spread on most other major islands, the threat of it landing on Molokai and wreaking havoc there is pretty dire and pretty imminent.”
Many testifiers on Tuesday said time was of the essence, and cited the state’s failed efforts to contain the beetles over the past 12 years, as evident in their spread across the state.
Separately, a change.org petition started by Nihipali supporting the interim ban on plants shipped to Molokai garnered nearly 900 signatures as of Tuesday evening.
Coconut rhinoceros beetles, or Oryctes rhinoceros, were first discovered in 2013 near a golf course at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and had only been found on Oahu for about a decade. In 2023, however, the beetles began spreading to neighbor islands.
The large beetle with a distinctive horn destroy palms by boring into their fronds to feed on leaves and sap. They also can destroy banana trees, papaya trees, pineapples and kalo (taro).
The proposed interim rule would prohibit the interisland movement of any potted or bare rooted plants, along with landscaping materials, mulch, compost, soil, gravel, wood chips, and erosion control socks from any other part of Hawaii to Molokai for one year.
Molokai is unique, supporters said, in being home to a wide variety of coconut species, as well as the Kapuaiwa Coconut Grove planted by King Kamehameha V in the 1860s — and the island needs to be protected.
In order to be brought before the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity, the petition needs to undergo a full review by an advisory committee. The board instructed the petition be reviewed by the committee, and be ready for its next scheduled meeting in September.
Source: The Garden Island
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