Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan - U.S. Fish and Wildlife ...

Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge
Comprehensive Conservation Plan
Objective 1.5: Investigate and initiate landscape-level habitat conservation measures.
Within 1 year of CCP approval, the Refuge will complete a Land Protection Planning effort in
cooperation with other agencies and interested parties to assess and identify land conservation
priorities in the vicinity of Refuge units. Potential additions or expansion of Hakalau Forest NWR
and examination of various land protection tools will be explored. Land Protection as part of the
Refuge System may include fee title acquisition, conservation easements, and/or cooperative
agreements.
The plan will provide for conservation of supporting habitats, partnership opportunities, and
opportunities to adapt Refuge management to impacts from global climate change.
Strategies to achieve objective:
Identify parcels of land that could provide supporting habitat for focal species of the KFU.
Develop strategies for protection and management of supporting habitat.
Work proactively with partners, neighbors, and private landowners where appropriate to meet
conservation goals and develop specific project proposals for land acquisition, cooperative
agreements, and/or conservation easements as key conservation opportunities arise and willing
parties are identified.
Rationale:
Through a cooperative effort culminating in the 2006 National Ecological Assessment Team
Report, the Service and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) outlined a unifying adaptive resource
management approach for conservation at “landscape” scales, the entire range of a priority species
or suite of species known as “strategic habitat conservation” or SHC. In April 2009, Service
leadership established Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs). The LCCs are conservationscience
partnerships between the Service, other Federal agencies, States, Territories, tribes, NGOs,
universities, and other entities. They are fundamental units of planning and science capacity to help
carry out the functional elements of SHC, biological planning, conservation design, conservation
delivery, monitoring, and research, and strategic response to climate change.
The Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC) is the LCC focused on Hawai‘i, the
Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and central Pacific islands under the U.S. flag. Established in
late 2009, it will create the technical capacity, decision support tools, and organizational structure to
address landscape-scale conservation issues using SHC. These tools will help managers reach
explicit conservation objectives for native species and habitats in the face of climate change and
ongoing threats such as fire, land conversion, and invasive species. The Hawaiian and Pacific
Islands NWRs anticipate using climate change information provided by the PICCC as foundational
products from which to conduct more detailed site-specific and species-specific analyses critical to
the preparation of planning documents and to prioritize on-the-ground conservation actions.
Currently, the Refuge identifies parcels on a case-by-case basis for protection as they become
available from willing sellers. A landscape approach on the slopes of Mauna Loa will allow staff to
focus efforts and work with partners to ensure that habitat needs are met over a larger area. In
addition, corridors between patches of protected habitat are critical for species migration in response
to climate change. Species distribution and abundance is likely to change based upon precipitation
patterns, temperature variations, and shifts in mosquito zones. The Refuge will identify landscapelevel
opportunities to augment the protection currently provided by existing Refuge lands.
Chapter 2. Refuge Management Direction 2-18