As used in this chapter:

“Aquatic life” means any type of species of mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod, invertebrate, coral, or other animals that inhabit the freshwater or marine environment, and includes any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or freshwater or marine plants, including seeds, roots, and other parts thereof.

“Board” means the board of land and natural resources.

“Candidate species” means any species being considered by the United States Secretary of the Interior for listing as an endangered or threatened species, but not yet the subject of a proposed rule.

“Conserve”, “conserving”, and “conservation” mean to use and the use of all methods and procedures which are necessary to bring any endangered species or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided pursuant to this chapter and the Endangered Species Act are no longer necessary. Such methods and procedures include, but are not limited to, all activities associated with scientific resources management such as research, census, habitat acquisition and maintenance, propagation, live capture, law enforcement, and transplantation.

“Department” means department of land and natural resources.

“Direct payments” means governmental compensation of landowners for their discovery, care, maintenance, and recovery of endangered, threatened, proposed, or candidate species or their essential habitat.

“Ecosystem” means all natural elements, physical and biological, of the habitat or site in which any aquatic life, wildlife, or land plant species is found, and upon which it is dependent.

“Endangered species” means any species whose continued existence as a viable component of Hawaii’s indigenous fauna or flora is determined to be in jeopardy and has been so designated pursuant to § 195D-4.

“Endangered Species Act” means the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 87 Stat. 884, or as such Act may be subsequently amended.

“Habitat banking” means a program that would allow a landowner, on whose property are found endangered, threatened, proposed, or candidate species or their essential habitat that would be impacted by a project being conducted on the property to purchase another property on which those affected species are found for the purposes of preserving those species as part of an approved habitat conservation plan.

“Indigenous species” means any aquatic life, wildlife, or land plant species growing or living naturally in Hawaii without having been brought to Hawaii by humans.

“Jeopardize the continued existence of an endangered or threatened, proposed, or candidate species” means any action that would be expected, directly or indirectly, to reduce the likelihood of the survival or recovery of the species in the wild, including the loss of genetic diversity of its populations where the species is a plant species.

“Landowner” means an owner of land or any estate or interest in that land when acting with the consent of the fee owner. In the case of government-owned lands, the consent shall be required of any government department or agency to which management or control of that land has been assigned.

“Land plant” means any member of the plant kingdom, including seeds, roots and other parts thereof, except freshwater or marine plants.

“License” means written permission by the department of land and natural resources to do a particular act or series of acts which without such permission would be unauthorized or prohibited.

“Natural communities” means a natural assemblage of plants or animals that occurs within certain elevation, moisture, and habitat conditions.

“Person” means an individual, corporation, partnership, trust, association, or any other private entity, or any officer, employee, agent, department, or instrumentality of the federal government, of any state or political subdivision thereof, or of any foreign government.

“Private lands” mean lands that are not “public lands”, as defined in this section.

“Proposed species” means any species that is the subject of a proposed rule for listing as an endangered or threatened species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.

“Public lands” means lands owned by the federal government, the State, or a county, or lands owned by any political subdivision of the federal government, the State, or a county.

“Recovery” or “recover” means that the number of individuals of the protected species has increased to the point that the measures provided under this chapter or the federal Endangered Species Act are no longer needed.

“Species” means and shall include any subspecies or lower taxa of aquatic life, wildlife, or land plants.

“State marine waters” means all waters of the State extending from the upper reaches of the wash of the waves on shore seaward to the limit of the State’s police power and management authority, including the United States territorial sea, notwithstanding any law to the contrary.

“Take” means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect endangered or threatened species of aquatic life or wildlife, or to cut, collect, uproot, destroy, injure, or possess endangered or threatened species of aquatic life or land plants, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.

“Technical assistance program” means a program that includes department staff designated to assist landowners in developing, reviewing, or monitoring habitat conservation plans by providing technical assistance.

“Threatened species” means any species of aquatic life, wildlife, or land plant which appears likely, within the foreseeable future, to become endangered and has been so designated pursuant to § 195D-4.

“Wildlife” means any nondomesticated member of the animal kingdom, whether reared in captivity or not, including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, except aquatic life as defined in this section.