Hawaii Marine Debris Action Plan (HI-MDAP)
Background | Results | Documents
Background
The NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) has been a partner in efforts to combat marine debris in Hawaii since 2005. The MDP works in cooperation with partners across the US and internationally to address marine debris. Around the Hawaiian Archipelago, a number of efforts are taking place to address the impacts of marine debris. The development and implementation of the HI-MDAP is being supported by the MDP.
The overall purpose of the HI-MDAP is to establish a comprehensive framework for strategic action to reduce the ecological, health and safety, and economic impacts of marine debris in Hawai‘i by 2020. Due to the complexity of marine debris issues, there is a role for everyone in the implementation of this plan, including the private citizen who picks up litter from our beaches and watersheds; federal, state, and county government agencies that are mandated to address the threat of marine debris; private businesses and industry that get involved to serve the communities in which they operate; and nongovernmental and academic organizations that support a wide range activities like cleanup, research, education, and outreach. The HI-MDAP establishes threat reduction goals and strategies to promote coordinated action to address the significant threats posed by marine debris in the Hawaiian archipelago.
The structure and goals of the HI-MDAP align to those of the Honolulu Strategy, which makes activity planning and progress tracking a simpler process. This global marine debris strategy, as with the HI-MDAP, may be used by Hawaii’s local marine debris community to strategically plan for future activities and track progress at multiple levels (i.e., regionally and globally).
For more information on the HI-MDAP meetings and workshops that have been held visit the HI-MDAP partners website.
Results
The original HI-MDAP was developed over a three year period from 2006 to 2009 through a collaborative process involving the multitude of Hawaii marine debris stakeholders from governmental, non-governmental, academic, industry, and private business partners from the across the state. In January 2010, the plan was released at a roll out ceremony that was attended by over 70 partner representatives, as well as supporting elected officials. The HIMDAP was designed as a living document to be routinely updated every two years as the process of addressing Hawaii’s marine debris issues evolves. As such, the original HI-MDAP included a two-year activity and implementation plan for the January 2010-December 2011 timeframe. At the conclusion of each two-year period, the plan will be updated to both incorporate the results from the previous implementation period and provide planned activities for the next two years.
This updated HI-MDAP was prepared for the second two-year cycle for January 2012-December 2013. A workshop was held on April 26 – 27, 2012 to bring HI-MDAP partners to review accomplishments of the past two years, identify strategic adjustments to the plan, and detail planned activities for the next two years.
For more information on what's been done so far, please visit the HI-MDAP partners website.
Documents
2012 Hawaii Marine Debris Action Plan – Coming soon!
2010 Hawaii Marine Debris Action Plan (pdf 8.17MB) - Also available on the partner website.
2008 Hawaii Marine Debris Workshop: Summary Report (pdf 718K)
