Ms Suzanne CASE
Director, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige appointed Suzanne Case as Chair of the Department of Land & Natural Resources in 2015, and re-appointed her in 2019. Governor Ige announced at IUCN 2016 in Hawaiʻi the Sustainable Hawaiʻi Initiative for watershed protection, marine management, biosecurity, food security, and renewable energy. Case oversees a staff of 1,000 and a budget of $159 million covering Hawaiʻi’s forestry and wildlife, freshwater, conservation and coastal regulation, aquatic resources, state parks, historic preservation, boating & ocean recreation, enforcement, and climate change impacts. Case chairs the Hawaiʻi Board of Land & Natural Resources and the Commission on Water Resource Management; and co-chairs the Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Commission and the Invasive Species Council. Case is a 28-year veteran of The Nature Conservancy. She grew up in Hawaii and has a degree in law.