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House committee approves Oahu pilot to collect coconut rhinoceros beetles but adds guardrails to deter breeding schemes
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Summary
The House Agriculture committee advanced a two‑year coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) eradication pilot focused on established infestation areas (Oahu), approving a pilot program that includes compensation for community collection but instructing staff to add safeguards and limits to reduce incentives for breeding beetles for payment.
The House Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems voted to advance SB746 SD2, a two‑year pilot to incentivize community collection and submission of coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRB) and their larvae in areas where the pest is established. The committee adopted amendments that narrow the pilot’s geographic scope and add language intended to reduce the risk that participants will breed or move beetles to collect bounties.
Why it matters: CRB damages coconut palms and other palms and has high cultural, ecological and landscape value in Hawaii. Testimony emphasized community participation, education and rapid response but also warned that bounty programs can unintentionally encourage people to breed or transport pests to collect payment.
Key testimony and questions
- HISC and DLNR supported creative community‑based approaches but cautioned about perverse incentives. Chelsea Arnott (HISC) and Dawn Chang (DLNR) said the state needs to guard against people harvesting or moving breeding populations to claim payments.
- Jonathan Ho (Hawaii Department of Agriculture) explained operational considerations for a bounty: vertebrate bounties are easier to regulate; invertebrates like CRB can be reared in green waste and moved, so the department proposed limited events or short redemption windows and potentially licensing or registration for collectors.
- Brian Miyamoto (Hawaii Farm Bureau) suggested limiting the pilot to Oahu (or islands with large populations) and implementing traceability measures, short timeframes, and registration to reduce risk. Several community testifiers, including student Nicholas Alardi, urged action in support of preserving coconut trees.
Committee action and amendments
The committee instructed staff to make the pilot Oahu‑focused or limited to islands with populations over 500,000 and to replace phrasing that could be read ambiguously ("captured in the wild") with clearer text (e.g., "coconut rhinoceros beetle that are captured"). Members asked drafters to add guardrails such as limited redemption windows, registration or licensing of collectors, and island‑specific protocols for handling specimens to avoid moving pests to uninfested islands.
Ending
SB746 SD2 was advanced with amendments to limit geography to areas with established CRB populations and to require tighter program design to limit unintended spread or breeding for payment. The committee asked agencies to return with operational details as the bill moves through the process.
