Bioprospecting: What You Don’t Know Might Hurt You

Lawrence Aki spoke out about the importance of community members becoming involved in such matters as, “the State has never been responsible for us Hawaiians.”

After taking a consensus of the room, it was found that 2 people felt as though they didn’t have enough information about bioprospecting to make an informed decision, 6 felt as though bioprospecting should be banned completely, 6 felt as though it should be heavily regulated (even if this meant discouraging it), and 2 felt that it should be regulated, but not discouraged.

The commission openly admitted that most questions would be left unanswered for now, but rather that the purpose of these meetings is to hear the perspectives of the people and to gather information. They also commented on the contents of the HCR being a reflection of the thoughts of the legislature, as opposed to that of native Hawaiians.

For more information on bioprospecting, visit www.oha.org, and look under Programs for Bioprospecting Advisory Commission.