HB 1351 Summary

• Authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish and operate conservation mitigation banks to restore, create, enhance, or preserve conservation habitats and resources as compensatory mitigation.

• Allows the Department to contract with a third-party administrator specializing in mitigation banking to operate and manage the conservation mitigation banks.

• Permits investors in conservation mitigation banks to sell credits generated from ecological conditions to persons or entities needing credits to compensate for environmental impacts they have caused.

• Authorizes the Department to adopt rules pursuant to Chapter 91 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes necessary to implement the conservation mitigation banking program.

• Defines "conservation mitigation bank" as a parcel of land managed to restore or maintain ecological conditions, including functional wildlife habitat and endangered species presence, for a set time period; becomes effective January 1, 2050.