TPL Hawaii has been designated as the Sentinel Landscape Hawaii program manager and as such will enhance collaborative conservation efforts and attract millions more of federal dollars to Hawai‘i under existing U.S. Fish & Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Department of Defense REPI or “buffer” programs. The designation would conserve natural and cultural resources, bolster agriculture and forestry, increase climate resiliency, while at the same time, support military readiness in the Indo-Pacific.
A Sentinel Landscape is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Defense (DoD), and Department of the Interior (DOI) as areas in which natural and working lands are well suited to protect defense facilities from land use that is incompatible with the military's mission. There are currently 10 areas designated as Sentinel Landscapes across the United States.
The military services requested Trust for Public Land’s (TPL) assistance to apply for a Sentinel Landscape designation for Hawai‘i. TPL applied and was notified that Hawaiʻi received a interim designation in early 2022. Under this interim designation, REPI will help fund a coordinator staff position housed within TPL to develop a 3-year implementation plan, identifying overlapping conservation and climate resiliency priorities among the federal agencies (NRCS, USFWS, DoD, and U.S. Forest Service). If the implementation plan is satisfactory, portions of Hawaiʻi will be designated a Sentinel Landscape without having to reapply or wait for the next application cycle. A designation would mean that, under existing federal conservation and REPI programs, Hawaiʻi projects would be prioritized for funding. The designation would leverage tens of millions of additional dollars for land conservation, watershed protection, habitat restoration and management, and climate resiliency in Hawaiʻi.
Record of Successful Conservation
REPI and TPL have worked successfully with communities to purchase and permanently conserve these special places:
Army REPI funded conservation projects
• Waimea Valley
• Pūpūkea-Paumalū
• Moanalua Valley
• Galbraith Agricultural Lands (Lands of Līhuʻe)
• Honouliuli Forest Reserve
• Kahuku Kawela Forever (Turtle Bay Makai)
• Turtle Bay Mauka Agricultural Lands
Navy REPI funded conservation projects
• Whitmore Agricultural Lands
• Helemano Wilderness Recreation Area
• MAʻO Organic Farm – Palikea Expansion
Other REPI funded conservation projects
• Honupu, Kauaʻi bird fencing project
• State wildfire mitigation on Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi
Islands
• Waiawa watershed fencing & native forest