HI HB318

Authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources to operate and approve conservation banks to provide compensatory mitigation for incidental take licensees with habitat conservation plans.

Defines a conservation bank as a site or suite of sites established for restoring, creating, enhancing, or protecting populations of threatened, endangered, candidate, or proposed species and their habitats through a credit system.

Establishes that a bank sponsor (public or private entity) and the board enter into a conservation bank instrument that describes the terms, conditions, and credit system for bank operation.

Credits represent value based on increases in listed species populations or attainment of enhanced ecological functions essential for species survival, and are released as the conservation bank meets performance criteria.

Increases certainty of mitigation completion, expedites project review, and makes project costs more predictable for incidental take licensees while providing long-term landscape-scale species protection.