Hawaiʻi Coastal Zone Management Program
The Hawaiʻi Coastal Zone Management Program provides for the effective management, beneficial use, protection, and development of the coastal zone. See L. 1977, c 188, § 1.
Our network, through partnerships with federal, state, and local organizations, provides a collaborative approach to managing coastal land and resources.
We employ a wide variety of techniques to identify complex coastal issues and explore solutions. Among them are technical assistance to local government agencies, and ensuring comprehensive and coordinated research, policy and project development and implementation, and public engagement and education on ocean and coastal interests.
Coastal Zone Management (CZM) balances economic development and conservation of resources in a sustainable manner and is a concept also known by other terms including integrated resource, place-based, and ecosystem management. We look at ecosystems as an interrelated whole rather than at the individual species, resources, or uses.
Because no point of land in Hawaiʻi is more than 30 miles from the ocean, the CZM area encompasses the entire state. What occurs on land, impacts and influences the quality of the coastal waters and marine resources. The CZM area also extends seaward to the limit of the State’s police power and management authority, including the territorial sea.