Investing sufficient funds for natural resource maintenance and restoration has always been important for Hawai‘i. We have been working to establish a dedicated fund for the past five years. The pandemic and recent Maui wildfires clearly revealed our vulnerabilities as a state and helped us to clearly see the urgency of our request. 

During the pandemic, when no visitors to the islands were allowed, we saw how the ‘āina land and sea were restored. Popular tourist hotspots had a chance to heal. Travel limitations allowed marine life and delicate ecosystems to flourish once again. We saw the possibilities and began to reimagine the future of our islands. We renewed our interest in regenerative tourism to create a sustainable environment. We saw the importance of having a fund for natural resource maintenance and restoration.

Our island home is already experiencing the consequences of climate change. With erratic weather conditions and an increasing the number of threats. The Maui wildfires in August 2023 devastated Lahaina. Many lost their loved ones, their homes, and their businesses. Cultural resources were decimated. It was evident that there is an immediate need to invest in environmental protection for the public safety of our communities. We must invest in natural resource protection and restoration to build resilience across our ecosystems and communities for future generations.

A dedicated fund for natural resource maintenance and restoration offers multiple benefits for our environment, residents and visitors, and our economy. The fund will:

1) protect, restore, and enhance terrestrial and marine natural resources;

2) increase the resilience and adaptation of Hawai‘i’s natural resources with environmentally beneficial strategies to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change; and

3) remove and control invasive species, and propagate and plant native species.



Currently, Hawai‘i does not invest enough in natural resource maintenance and restoration. Only 1% of our state budget is earmarked to care for our parks, trails, shorelines, and reefs.

The Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is responsible for taking care of public lands. Together with nonprofit organizations, DLNR has proven to be effective in managing public lands.

Hā‘ena State Park on Kaua‘i as a case study of an excellent public-nonprofit partnership.



Hā‘ena State Park on Kaua‘i as a case study of an excellent public-nonprofit partnership made possible by resources.

 Prior to the pandemic, more than 700,000 visitors were coming to Hā‘ena State Park, making it the third most-visited state park in Hawai‘i. Rental cars of visitors created traffic congestion and blocked the driveways of residents, visitors parked illegally and willingly paid the relatively small fines, there was a disregard for private property and a lack of state and county officials to enforce of existing rules, and there was degradation of natural and cultural resources.

Today, Hā‘ena State Park no longer suffers from the same challenges. The community has executed the Hā‘ena State Park Master Plan, which was approved by Kaua‘i County in 2018, culminating 20 years of collaboration, technical studies, and extensive input from various stakeholders.

Today, both kama‘āina and visitors alike enjoy the park, a testament that regenerative tourism is possible. Through public-nonprofit partnerships with DLNR, invasive, alien plants in the forest have been removed and an ancient lo‘i has been restored. New requirements make advanced reservations for park users mandatory. A certain number of parking stalls are reserved for residents. There are more stringent fines for illegal parking. Shuttle service helps reduce over-parking. And funding generated by parking, entry and shuttles fees are used to manage the park.

As a result of these changes, the park’s visitor count has dropped from 2,000 to 3,000 visitors a day to 900 visitors a day. The transformation is less taxing on the environment, less aggravating for residents, and because it is less crowded, more enjoyable for visitors.

Our name change reflects our focus on establishing a $100 million annual fund for natural resource maintenance and restoration instead of focusing on the funding mechanism. We are open to different options for funding and will leave this up to our lawmakers to determine how best to provide the resources for this fund on an annual, recurring basis. This can include a combination of a visitor green fee, climate adaptation fee, reservation and admission fees for various sites, and other sources.

The Care for ‘Āina Now (CAN) coalition is focused primarily on establishing the need for funding for the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) for natural resource protection and restoration of our state’s forests, hiking trails and other public places.


When we have well maintained public lands, we believe everyone benefits, kama‘āina and visitors alike. Everyone has a vested interest in keeping our islands beautiful and safe to combat the effects of erratic weather conditions. Investing in natural resource protection and restoration is a climate adaptation strategy that we should pursue. 

We are open to all funding mechanisms and will leave it up to our policymakers on how best to provide a permanent, dedicated consistent source of funding for this important effort.

The CAN Coalition is open to all possibilities of funding, including the TAT. Our primary focus is establishing a dedicated fund for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to care for state lands. 

According to the Hawai‘i State Department of Taxation's 2021-2022 annual report, the transient accommodation tax (TAT) is the third largest source of tax revenues in the state. TAT is levied on the furnishing of a room, apartment, suite, or the like, which is customarily occupied by the transient for fewer than 180 consecutive days. There are also registration fees for accommodations operators. 

After the Safe Travel restriction in March 2022, visitors began to come back to Hawai‘i and, as a result, TAT collections soared to $738.7 million in FY 2022, exceeding even pre-pandemic TAT collection levels. It represented a 243.1% increase over FY 2021’s TAT collection of $215.3 million.

The FY 2022 TAT collections were distributed as follows:

$645.5 million: State’s General Fund

$70.0 million: Mass Transit Fund

$11.0 million: Convention Center Enterprise Special Fund*

$7.7 million: Tax Administration Fund

$3.0 million: Special Land and Development Fund

$1.5 million: Turtle Bay Conservation Easement Special Fund

$0.0 million: Tourism Emergency Special Fund


The CAN Coalition believes establishing a recurring annual fund of $100 million is necessary for natural resource protection and restoration for our islands statewide, and that this would ultimately support our visitor industry and benefit Hawai‘i residents.

* It is important to note that Act I, SSLH 2021, which became effective on July 1, 2021, authorized the counties to establish and administer their own TAT at a maximum rate of 3%. The Act reduced the allocation to the Convention Center Enterprise Special Fund from $16.5 million to $11 million. The Act also eliminated a $79 million allocation to the Tourism Special Emergency Fund and a $103 million allocation to the counties.

Yes, we recognize most of the TAT goes to the state’s general fund. We do not want to take resources from other priority areas, such as health care, infrastructure, or education to fund essential conservation. We are also sensitive about concerns that increasing the TAT or other visitor fees may dissuade tourists from coming to Hawai‘i, but we recognize that other visitor destinations throughout the globe also charge visitor fees.