Kauaʻi Good Neighbor Program – Participate in Our Survey!

 

 

 

This survey should take less than 10 minutes. Responses will be aggregated. No responses will be attributed to specific individuals, businesses or organizations.

 

 

Act 45: In 2018, the Hawaiʻi Legislature passed Act 45, which requires those who use restricted use pesticides to report their use to HDOA at the end of each calendar year. HDOA must produce a summary, by county, of RUP usage and make that information available for public review.

 

Evaluation: The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture has contracted with the Environmental Mediation Center to re-evaluate the Kauaʻi Good Neighbor Program. The purpose of this survey is to gather input from residents, businesses, and organizations about the value of the GNP and to understand the relevance of this program in light of the requirements established by Act 45. We want to hear what worked with the GNP, gather suggestions for improvement, and assess whether best management practices could be incorporated into the Good Neighbor Program. If you have a stake in the GNP, please help us by taking this survey.

 

To learn more about the Kauaʻi Good Neighbor Program, please see the letter from HDOA Chair Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser requesting participation in the re-evaluation, our summary below, and the previous report from 2015.

 

2015 Evaluation of the Kauaʻi Good Neighbor Program

The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture (HDOA) developed the Kauaʻi Agricultural Good Neighbor Program (Good Neighbor Program) in response to the highly-charged debate on Kauaʻi over pesticides. The Good Neighbor Program includes voluntary guidelines for outreach, pre-application notification and post-application reporting, and increased buffers for restricted use pesticides (RUP).

 

In 2015, HDOA asked the Environmental Mediation Center to conduct an evaluation of the Good Neighbor Program. 

Summary of the 2015 Good Neighbor Program and Evaluation

The Good Neighbor Program is a voluntary program. Syngenta, BASF Plant Science, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont Pioneer, and Kauaʻi Coffee Co., LLC. participated in the program. The evaluation included an online survey and interviews and small focus group meetings with participating companies, neighbors, and other stakeholders.

 

Outreach

The Good Neighbor Program anticipated that participating farm operators would meet with their neighbors to discuss the farm’s use of RUPs and any questions or concerns the neighbors had. The evaluation investigated the frequency of  dialogues and the level of satisfaction from those who participated.

 

Notification And Reporting

Under the notification process of the Good Neighbor Program, participating farm operators who utilize RUPs provide pre-application notice to certain entities that registered to receive information from a particular farm. The evaluation investigated how many people registered and the level of satisfaction with the information provided in the pre-application notification.

 

Participating farm operators also provided monthly post-application reports to an HDOA database that lists all applications of RUPs, including the product, the amount applied, and the acreage treated. The evaluation investigated the frequency of visits to the database, the accessibility of information, and the adequacy of information provided.

 

Buffers

With a few exceptions, the Good Neighbor Program established a voluntary minimum buffer of 100 feet between the application of a RUP and the property line of schools, medical facilities, and residences. Any existing stricter regulation superseded the Good Neighbor Program buffer. The evaluation investigated any compliance issues, complaints, and stakeholders’ satisfaction with the buffer.

 

Evaluation Team

Matt Strassberg is the director of the Environmental Mediation Center and the administrator of the Hawaiʻi Agricultural Mediation Program as well as agricultural mediation programs in other states. He is an attorney and mediator with over twenty five years of experience in environmental law and mediation. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Agricultural Mediation Programs, and is listed on the roster of the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution.

 

Kem Lowry is an Emeritus Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Hawaiʻi. He has researched and served as consultant to public agencies, non-profit organizations on land use and environmental policy including agricultural issues. He is also a mediator, facilitator, and has conducted numerous program evaluations internationally.

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