With the aim of protecting and restoring the ecological and cultural services provided by our forests, the State of Hawai‘i is honored to make a pledge of 10,000,000 trees a year for a total of 100,000,000 trees to be conserved, restored, or grown by 2030. Through the work of our state departments and partners these actions will contribute to the state’s net-negative carbon goal.  In 2017 our forests sequestered 2.69 Million Metric Tons of carbon dioxide. It is our challenge and our pledge to increase this by 2030.

Forest carbon projects withdraw the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it in trees and other biomass to mitigate global climate change. We will permanently conserve 43,000 acres of forest and we will build conservation fences to protect an additional 106,816 acres of forest from feral ungulates in our watersheds to ensure this number grows, with the additional goals of protecting our sustainable supply of drinking water and improving water quality.  Restoring and protecting the healthy ecosystems of our native plants and animals and  coral reefs will take place within systems which perpetuate Native Hawaiian culture.

The state has directed funding to nursery improvements so that we can ramp up efforts to meet the target production and planting of 50,000 trees annually. These trees will grow the footprint of our forests and green our urban landscapes. Forests sequester CO2 in larger quantities and for longer periods of time than any other land use and converting degraded land to forest will increase the amount of carbon stored. Additionally, reforestation will return ecosystem services such as freshwater purification and replenishment, soil protection, biodiversity protection, and recreational experiences to otherwise unused landscapes. The state is investing in research and action in biosecurity to protect the health of our forests and to prevent the future entry of invasive species.

We will continue to work with private partners through our watershed partnerships, the forest stewardship program and directly to ensure privately held forested lands are protected through natural resource management, conservation easements or acquisition by the state. We will continue to work with our federal partners to raise funds for the purchase of priority forests to bring them into permanent conservation under state protection.