September: Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat:
Gov. David Ige welcomed a major environmental conference to Hawaii on Thursday by committing to protect more of his state’s watersheds and nearshore ocean waters.
Ige spoke to several thousand people at the opening of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress, which will continue through Sept. 10 at the Hawaii Convention Center.
He announced the state’s commitment to protect 30 percent of its highest priority watersheds by 2030 and to “effectively manage” 30 percent of its nearshore ocean waters in the same time frame.
“We are a microcosm of our planet Earth,” Ige said during opening ceremonies at the Blaisdell Center. “We cannot afford to mess this up.”
(Comment: Although a majority of the opening speakers addressed ocean issues, our governor opened his welcoming comments which a statement which directly concerns freshwater supplies on our islands.)
For the rest of the article and all of Civil Beat’s excellent coverage of the World Conservation Congress which is ongoing in Honolulu see this link