Requesting support and engagement to conduct anupdate of the actions outlined in the2017-2027 Hawaiʻi Interagency Biosecurity Plan
Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council meeting
Tuesday, June 13, 2023; 1:00 pm
Co-presenters:
Chelsea Arnott (HISC), Darcy Oishi (HDOA), Christy Martin (UH PCSU CGAPS)

Discussion• Invasive Species in Hawaiʻi• The Need for Statewide Coordination and Planning• Overview of the Hawaiʻi Interagency Biosecurity Plan
• Biosecurity in 2027
• Progress so far• The need to review, reassess, and reprioritize• Council Recommendations

Invasive Species in Hawaiʻi‘Invasive species’ is defined as, “a non-nativeorganism whose introduction causes or is
likely to cause economic or environmental
harm, or harm to human, animal, or plant
health.” E.O. 13751, Dec. 6, 2016

Invasive Species in Hawaiʻi•

On islands, invasive species is the primary driver of biodiversity loss: rare and even
abundant native species are being lost•

Damage to ecosystem functions: forests for watersheds, carbon sequestration,cooling; corals for habitat and coastal protection; loss of pollination services, etc.

•Harm to agriculture: affects everyone, underserved/vulnerable & major ag industries•

Impact on public health: direct harm from species like box jellyfish and diseases carriedand spread by mosquitoes, snails & slugs; wildfire risk from invasive grasses•

Impact to cultural practices: degradation of cultural sites & loss of native species•

Economic harm: Little Fire Ants--$200M annually on Hawaii island; brown treesnakes
projected at $2.14B annually if they were to arrive, incl infrastructure damages•Climate change & invasive species synergies. Controlling invasive species is themost important & available resilience strategy

Invasive Species in Hawaiʻi● International frameworks, federal & state agencies, Counties = policy patchwork, gaps
● 1991: Island-based Melastome Action Committees (MACs) begin to form to address
Miconia; Watershed Partnerships begin to form
● 1994: Multi-agency Alien Species Action Plan (ASAP) developed; group formalized as theCoordinating Group on Alien Pest Species to facilitate and catalyze action● 1999: MACs begin to transition to Invasive Species Committees to fill multi-taxa EDRRgaps; National Invasive Species Council forms● 2003: Hawaii Invasive Species Council legislatively established to ensure engagement ofState agency leadership over time; Aquatic Invasive Species Team established● 2008: Hawaii Ant Lab established under HDOA, in partnership with UH● 2015: Regional Biosecurity Plan for Micronesia and Hawaii● 2017-2027: Hawaii Interagency Biosecurity Plan

What is Biosecurity?
• The set of measures taken to manage the risk frominvasive species to the economy, environment, andhealth and lifestyle of the people.
• Effective Biosecurity requires a comprehensive
approach that includes:• Preborder prevent invasive species from making their
way to Hawaii – USDA BTS Dog Program• Border inspecting incoming items to ensure minimal riskof pest entry into the state – CRB Monitoring at Airports• Post-border detecting and responding to new incursionsof invasive species and controlling established invasive
species wherever possible. – Use of natural enemies tocontrol widespread weeds like Miconia

Major Gaps & Weaknesses:
Biosecurity Prior to 2017
• STAFF• Increase branch capacity on each island• Specialist positions (pathologists, entomologists, IT)• POLICY• Ballast water and Biofouling• Inspect non-Ag commodities• FUNDING• Soft funded• Shrinking federal grants• HDOA and DLNR receive 1.4% of state budget• FACILITIES• Transitional facilities for inspections• Pacific Regional Biocontrol Facilities2017-2027 Hawaiʻi Interagency Biosecurity Plan
Launched by HDOA in 2017…
❖ Comprehensive in scope❖ Collaborative &Multidisciplinary approach❖ 147 action items❖ A 10-year path forward

Biosecurity in 2027
• Risk assessments and electronicmanifesting• Regulation of ballast and biofouling• Inspection facilities• Doubled inspection staff, for both
imports and interisland shipments• Field capacity at DLNR & DOH• Stable funding for the ISCs
• HDOA biocontrol facility• New outreach tools

Progress on Implementation:
Biosecurity in 2023
Implementation for 68% of actions has started
Public Awareness

PwsTifs1.4: Collaborate with HTA to contract a
professional public relations firm to create visuallyappealing signs and displays regarding biosecurity atairports. (PC: DLNR)POSTBORDERBORDER

PrePro4.1: Write Hawaii-specific standards and protocols
for use in compliance agreements for offshoreprescreening of agricultural commodities to Hawaii. (PC:HDOA)PREBORDER

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Completed/ongoing/Approved / Partially Approved
working to completion/introduced but not passed
not yet started/not yet introduced/needs re-evalaution/request to remove

PwsPro3.5: Help implement HISC’s state-of-the-art pest
notification and reporting system, and integrate it with thebiosecurity online portal.

InitiatedNot started

Jan-23Oct-22

Jul-22

Apr-22

Jan-22Oct-21

Jul-21

Apr-21

Jan-21

Oct-20Jul-20

Apr-20Jan-20

Oct-19Jul-19Apr-19Jan-19Oct-18

Jul-18Apr-18Jan-18Oct-17

Jul-17

Apr-17Jan-17

Where are we headed?
HIBP Progress Over TimeJan 2017 - Jan 2023

10.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

The Need to Review & Update Actions
1. Structural changes to improve flow andcommunications amongst departments and partner
programs
2. Review of individual actions
3. Improved tracking & communication on the plan’s
implementation
4. Recommitting agency leadership & staff toimplementation

Structural changes to improve flow and communications

Assessing risk is a critical theme throughout the biosecurity plan, listing 10 actions
to address this gap but without any formatting or explanation of how each action
relates to the other creating challenges for implementation and communication.
(PC: HDOA)

Creating broader headings for similar actions• Electronic Manifest System: 10 separateactions (PrePro1.1, 1.4, 2.1, PreTifs1.1,PosPol1.2, PosPro2.1 ,PrePol1.2) = ASSESSING
RISK…

The Biosecurity Plan is focused on State Departments and only lists DLNR, HDOA,HDOH, & UH as leads for implementing actions. (PC: Honolulu Harbor)Re-Prioritizing, Recommitting & Adding New
Agency Leads• Tourism and ports of entry play a major role inbiosecurity, but currently there are no actions
listed for HDOT or DBEDT

Review of Individual Actions
Actions labeled ongoing, working towards completion(have not moved in a while) or not started.
• Some of these actions need roadmaps, need to be paired
down to identify goals/objectives, or other actions haveoccurred that have impacted the original understanding of
how to achieve the overall objective/goal.
• 17 actions listed to address Ballast Water & Biofouling. Actions
were developed prior to the federal Vessel Incidental Discharge
Act (VIDA) that passed in 2018

Ballast water(upper left) and biofouling (bottom) are the two main vectors foraquatic non-native species introductions. Now the threat of Stony Coral Tissue
Loss Disease coming to Hawaii via one of these two pathways is cause for major
concern.

Review of Individual Actions
Action needs re-evaluation• These actions may need language changes,
additional information or actions, etc…
• PrePro 3.1: Setting up cooperative agreements with ecommerce to stop the sale of harmful species toHawaii.
• Broaden action to simply stop the sale of harmfulspecies to Hawaii – leave the mechanism of how this isachieved to the lead agency

The world of e-commerce is constantly evolving and actions in the plan mustremain flexible on this pathway is addressed in the present and future. (PCVolusion)

Review of Individual Actions
Action no longer relevant• These actions are no longer relevant ornecessary to enhancing Hawaii’s biosecurity• PosPol2.1: legislation and regulation to restructure
the HISC as the Hawaii Invasive Species Authority, anautonomous interagency body to manage andadminister biosecurity programs.

AImproved Tracking & Communication on Implementation
Utilize partner’s networks and expertise• Hawaii Green Growth manages large amounts of data and currently
tracks the UN SDGs and the Aloha+ Dashboard• HISC/CGAPS Joint Strategy prioritized the most pressing actions in theBiosecurity Plan to focus on in the next 5 years

Recommitting Agency Leadership & StaffSubmittal Recommendations·Direct HISC Program Support staff to work with relevant agencies and stakeholders toupdate the Interagency Biosecurity Plan to reflect current needs and prioritize actions
across the remaining plan’s timeline.

·Commit and direct staff at their respective agencies to participate in this planning
process by providing their time and expertise in related meetings and requests for
information and input to meet the proposed eight-month timeline for this project.

Questions
Chelsea Arnott HISC Program Supervisor Chelsea.l.arnott@Hawaii.gov
Darcy Oishi HDOA Biocontrol Officer Darcy.e.oishi@Hawaii.gov
Christy Martin CGAPS Program Manager christym@rocketmail.com