By Devin Kamealoha Forrest, Esq., NHLC Research Specialist
Co-management and co-stewardship are land and resource agreements between two or more entities, often including terms about access, caretaking, and costs.
Co-management often involves a law or court order directing specific entities to make an agreement. Co-stewardship is generally voluntarily entered into by various stakeholders that are caring for an area or resource.
Indigenous peoples around the world are increasingly using both kinds of agreements to secure legal rights necessary to fulfill traditional kuleana to mālama native lands, waters, and natural resources for which title has been lost following colonization.
Often, these agreements are forged from recognized Indigenous duties and rights to places of cultural significance. These arrangements also may be encouraged or required by law or administrative policy.
In Hawaiʻi, we have secured a variety of co-management and co-stewardship arrangements between the State of Hawaiʻi, the federal government, and many organizations who have deep ties and understanding of the land and other public trust resources.
One of the larger co-management areas is the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument where state, federal, and Native Hawaiian organizations co-manage the nuanced relationship of people, place, and resource.
We also have more local co-management areas that overlay co-stewardship areas like in Hāʻena, Kauaʻi, where there is co-management of the state park and its fisheries and co-stewardship of certain wahi pana (storied places), in the same area.
Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes (“HRS”) 188-22.9 (2015), is the enabling statute for the community based subsistence fishing area (CBSFA) which created a pathway for the state to work with the Hāʻena community. Under the statute, the community and enforcement agencies created and passed rules that regulate the method of fishing in the Hāʻena area.
This allows for the traditions of Hāʻena to be the “law of the land” and gives the enforcement agencies guidance on how to protect and co-manage the area as it has been for hundreds of years.
There are also relationships that look like co-stewardship or co-management because cultural practitioners found it necessary to use other means of engaging with government processes.
Some communities have used long term leases or a long term renewable permitting structure to protect and perpetuate practices on culturally significant and sensitive areas. The Fish and Wildlife Service at the Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge has been working with community to ensure cultural accesses to various places within their management area through such a permitting schema.
Negotiating these agreements can be challenging requiring substantial time, painstakingly developed relationships with diverse stakeholders, and varying legal and political processes for decision-making. It can also be a long process to articulate what the community needs and wants for the nature of the co-management or stewardship.
When successful, however, these agreements can be meaningful tools for perpetuating our culture, protecting our ʻāina and wai, and protecting the role of Kānaka voices and traditional knowledge, no matter the political or social climate. He kāʻeʻaʻeʻa o ke kai loa, ʻaʻohe ʻale e hopo ai – seek the far off places and do not fear the massive swells.
E Nīnau iā NHLC provides general information about the law. E Nīnau iā NHLC is not legal advice. You can contact NHLC about your legal needs by calling NHLC’s offices at 808-521-2302. You can also learn more about NHLC at nativehawaiianlegalcorp.org.
