From August through November, 2007 a special committee established by Legislative resolution has been holding “informal community discussion forums” on several islands regarding bioprospecting. This committee is racially and ideologically “stacked” with a legislatively mandated majority of ethnic Hawaiians, including two OHA trustees and the two top leaders of the sovereignty activist organization ‘Ilio’ulaokalani; and by being housed inside OHA.
What is bioprospecting? Should ethnic Hawaiians be given a disproportionately large share of any revenue generated from bioprospecting? Should the Legislature give away licensing rights, revenue, and jurisdictional authority to ethnic Hawaiians as a racial group even before the Akaka bill passes, before there is a Native Hawaiian governing entity, and before there are any negotiations in which the State (on behalf of all Hawaii’s people) might get something in return for such giveaways?
A webpage contains the press release announcing the committee hearings, some news reports describing bioprospecting and the hearings, the testimony of Ken Conklin for the forum at Windward Community College on November 27, and links to other related webpages. See
http://tinyurl.com/yud9gw