(BASED ON PRESS RELEASE) —Gov. Togiola Tulafono was the keynote speaker at the 2010 Hawai'i Conservation Conference (HCA) at the Waikiki Aquarium last month. During the festivities that same evening, Hawai'i State Senator Mike Gabbard...

and his colleagues at the State Legislature presented Governor Togiola with an honorary certificate from the State Senate for his environmental leadership.

Senator Gabbard said, "Governor Tulafono has proven himself to be a leader in the Pacific Island region for doing the right thing when it comes to our environment. His recent support for legislation to ban plastic shopping bags in American Samoa is a testament to this fact."

Governor Tulafono as a member of the United States Coral Reef Task Force, was instrumental in the designation of Rose Atoll as a National Marine Monument.

Senator Gabbard serves as the Hawai'i State Senate's Energy and Environment Chair, as a member of the Hawai'i Invasive Species Council, and as the founder and President of the Healthy Hawai'i Coalition.

The HCA is a cooperative collaboration of conservation leaders representing 18 state and federal agencies, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations. The HCA engages scientists and managers, educators and students, political leaders and community members in an ongoing dialogue about Hawai‘i’s conservation challenges and their solutions.

The HCA focused on the theme Pacific Ecosystem Management and Restoration: Applying Traditional and Western Knowledge Systems this year. Its main goal was to strengthen the ties between conservation leaders in Hawai‘i and the greater Pacific Island region.
“Throughout the Pacific we face many of the same conservation challenges--the loss of native species and habitats, the encroachment of invasive species on land and in the sea, the impairment of watershed and coral reef function, and the growing threat of climate change--the combination of which poses an imminent threat to Hawaiian and Pacific Island biocultural heritage and to our very way of life,” the organization says.

Please contact me if I can help you. My phone is 586-6830 and e-mail is sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov. Mahalo for the privilege of serving you!