HI HB651

Authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to establish and operate conservation banks, and to approve conservation bank instruments from public or private bank sponsors

Conservation banks would protect, restore, create, or enhance populations and habitats of threatened, endangered, candidate, or proposed species, generating credits that can be sold to incidental take licensees as compensatory mitigation

Requires conservation bank applications to include resource management plans with goals, baseline species information, performance standards, monitoring requirements, maintenance plans, long-term management plans, and adaptive management strategies

Board approval of conservation bank instruments requires a two-thirds vote and cannot proceed if the Endangered Species Recovery Committee majority recommends disapproval; prohibits credit stacking while allowing credit bundling

Updates the Endangered Species Recovery Committee membership to replace the USGS Biological Resources Division director with the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area associate director, and expands committee duties to include reviewing conservation bank applications