The biological resource value of native forest in Hawaii with special reference to the tropical lowland rainforest at Kalapana

Abstract

A public controversy has arisen over the recent logging and wood chipping operation in native forest at Kalapana. I got involved at a point where the argument of dispute was whether the forest at Kalapana was unique or not. The question of uniqueness is important with regard to future land management of this area, but uniqueness is not the only aspect worth considering. This I will explain later in my conclusions. A sizeable segment of the interested public considers the forest unique, while the landowner (Campbell Estate Corporation) and the logging company (Bio Power Corporation) are not convinced of the uniqueness of this native forest. Therefore, more information was requested specifically by Mr. Warren Ramsey, the President of Bio Power Corporation, who agreed to mitigate his operation orentirely pull out of the area if more creditable evidence could begiven.Mr. Ramsey's request for such information came to me inform of a letter dated December 27, 1984. His letter was a response to a December 18 letter of mine, which summarized some of the points I had presented