City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine wants visitors to Oahu to pledge to be “environmentally responsible and culturally sensitive” during their stay here.

Under a bill she’s introduced, Pine wants to enlist the Office of Economic Development or another city agency to establish the “Keep Hawai‘i Hawai‘i” program and work with those tied to the visitor industry to promote it.

Bill 51 will be heard by the Council Business, Economic Development and Tourism Committee, which Pine chairs, at its meeting Oct. 22.

The pledge would ask visitors to agree to “respect our agriculture, leave Hawaii and the places you visit the way you found it, not leave trash, not damage our trails or our other natural resources,” she said.

Pledge awareness programs have also been created in Hawaii and Kauai counties, but Pine’s proposal would be the first in Hawaii to be coordinated by a local government agency.

Andrew Pereira, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s communications director, said the administration is still studying Pine’s bill and has not yet formed a position on it.

Pine acknowledged that “we’re kind of in new territory because the city really doesn’t get involved in tourism, yet we’re impacted in every way both positively and negatively.”

There is growing community awareness and concern about how tourism affects the island’s resources, especially in a day where, for instance, social media has made previously less known hiking trails more popular, she said. “And there’s no control over where everyone goes.”

Ideally, the pledge form would be part of the state Department of Agriculture’s Plants and Animals Declaration Form that’s distributed to passengers on airline flights inbound to Oahu and then collected by flight attendants, Pine said.

Otherwise, she said, “we partner up with hotels when people check in, where people are doing tours, anywhere where people have contact with tourists.”

In the Hawaii Island Visitors Bureau’s Pono Pledge, tourists promise to avoid closed or unsafe areas and to “admire wildlife from afar” both on land and in the ocean, appreciate the volcano and lava flow without disrupting its flow, leave lava and sand where they’re found, be mindful of the dangers of the ocean and other waterways, and “embrace the island’s aloha spirit as it embraces me.”

Separate sections on the Hawaii Island Visitors Bureau’s website provide safety tips and more information on the island’s protected species.

The website, which describes Hawaii County as a partner, listed 3,588 signees as of Sunday morning. The program began in September 2018.

On Kauai the Aloha Pledge that began in June was introduced in the aftermath of the devastating north shore flooding that, among other things, shut down a critical, 2-mile stretch of Kuhio Highway that cut off vehicular access to a significant part of the island in April 2018.

The Kauai program is a grassroots effort led by Garden Isle businesses and supported by the Kauai Visitors Bureau.

The program’s web page calls on signees to agree to pledge to the children of Kauai “to preserve and protect your special home, to engage with people and places in a balanced, respectful and sustainable way.”

The Kauai pledge goes beyond asking visitors to agree to being sensitive to the culture and environment. “I will stay in legal and licensed visitor accommodations,” states one line in the pledge. “I will remember I am a guest here and that others are not on vacation.”

The island nation of Palau, through the Palau Pledge, requires all visitors to sign a passport “eco-pledge” promising that they will “act in an ecologically responsible way on the island, for the sake of Palau’s children and future generations of Palauans.”

The pledge website states Palauan children helped draft the four-paragraph declaration, which reads in part, “I vow to tread lightly, act kindly and explore mindfully” and that “the only footprints I shall leave are those that will wash away.”

The website includes a statement from Palau Republic President Tommy Remengesau. “It is our responsibility to show our guests how to respect our island home, just as it is their duty to uphold the signed pledge when visiting,” Remengesau said.