Hawaiʻi officials are looking to New Zealand to help shore up its own biosecurity efforts.

A group of key state lawmakers and staff, including those from the state Department of Agriculture, visited New Zealand in September to learn more about how the island nation prevents and manages invasive species.

At a recent Hawaiʻi Board of Agriculture meeting, Jonathan Ho, the manager for the department’s Plant Quarantine Branch, noted some of the ways New Zealand prevents pests from entering and becoming established.

“To compare to New Zealand, I think per capita they spend about 10 times what we do,” he said. “They focus very heavily on pre-entry, so trying to force as much of the inspections, the treatments, compliance agreements — all of that stuff outside the border prior to entry."

State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz was one of the lawmakers who made the September trip, and in a newsletter, he noted that New Zealand has what is “widely considered to be the best biosecurity system in the world.”

His newsletter said that New Zealand has a three-tiered biosecurity system that starts with cleanliness requirements for the goods — and the ships carrying the goods — before they enter the country.

Detector dogs, physical inspections and disposal techniques also filter out pests and unwanted species at the border before they can spread. After that, the country has rigorous surveillance and response mechanisms in place.

Ho said that additional funding would help invasive species management, but that Hawaiʻi’s dependence on imports, one of the primary ways invasive species end up in the islands, coupled with its lack of resources and inadequate regulations makes pest introduction always a possibility.

“We import 90% of our goods, and I don't see that changing any time soon. And as long as there is imported goods, there is going to be risks,” Ho said.

The state agriculture department only has 89 inspectors to check goods imported into Hawaiʻi, and they only check about 10% to 15% of the goods, Ho said.

Pre-border requirements on goods and vessels to ensure that pests don’t even make it to Hawaiʻi would be helpful, but Ho said it’s more difficult for a state to make those rules than it is for a country like New Zealand.

Requests for more biosecurity funding and policy changes are likely to come in the upcoming state legislative session.