University of Hawaii officials affirmed Monday that the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope project will be the last new observatory site developed on Mauna Kea and pledged to decommission one-quarter of existing telescopes atop the Hawaii island mountain as requested by Gov. David Ige.

But opponents of the TMT project, who regard Mauna Kea as a sacred cultural site, say they don’t believe the efforts go far enough and vowed to continue protesting the $1.4 billion telescope project.

"I haven’t seen anything that resembles a real solution, one that involves the people," said Kealoha Pisciotta, president of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, an organization made up of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners who have been legally challenging astronomy development atop Mauna Kea for more than 15 years.

Ige last week declared the state had in many ways failed the mountain and called on the university to take multiple steps to improve stewardship of Mauna Kea. "Now comes the hard work as we move forward toward a new future for Mauna Kea," the governor said in a statement Monday.

UH leases more than 11,000 summit acres from the state under a long-term agreement that expires in 2033. Within that area, UH operates a 525-acre Astronomy Precinct that encompasses 12 of 13 observatories on the mountain.

The governor has asked UH to take 10 steps to better care for and protect Mauna Kea lands, including:

» Legally agree that the TMT project area would be the last area on Mauna Kea where a telescope project would be contemplated or sought.

» Decommission at least 25 percent of existing observatories before TMT is operational.

» Voluntarily return to the state summit lands not being used for astronomy.

» Restart the environmental review process for UH’s lease extension request and substantially reduce the length of the extension. UH planned to ask for a 65-year lease.

» Increase financial support for stewardship by current and future sublessees.

UH President David Lassner told reporters Monday that the university agrees with each of the governor’s requests, some of which, he said, UH had already been working toward.

"They’re all the right things to do for the mountain," Lassner said.

He and UH-Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney acknowledged the need to improve oversight. (The Office of Mauna Kea Management, which was created in 2000 to responsibly steward land use and activities on UH managed lands, reports directly to the Hilo chancellor.)

"We accept that the university has not yet met all of our obligations to the mountain or the expectations of the community. For that, we apologize," Lassner and Straney said in a joint statement. "As we move forward, we commit to increased engagement and active listening with the community."

In response to the governor’s requests, UH affirmed that any new observatories can only be placed on existing sites on Mauna Kea. Lassner said the university would be meeting this week with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to figure out how to make the commitment legally binding.

The university also pledged to have a plan by the end of this year for removing 25 percent of existing telescopes and restoring the sites by the time the TMT, which will take an estimated 10 years to build, begins operations.

Straney estimated dismantling facilities and restoring those footprints could cost between $2 million and $5 million per telescope, a cost the facility owners would need to cover.

Pisciotta said community stakeholders should be involved in any conversations about decommissioning sites.

"Some of these facilities go down many stories underground," she said. "We need to talk about what would be acceptable, and we should have time to think about it."

UH also said the university will work with DLNR to return approximately 10,000 summit acres not being used for astronomy.

"Those lands already belong to DLNR and are part of a cultural and natural area preserve," Pisciotta said. "That’s not really anything."

Construction of the TMT project has remained on hold as protesters camp out at the 9,200-foot level, ready to block work vehicles to the site.

"We’ve been here since the beginning. We haven’t left and we don’t plan on leaving," Kahookahi Kanuha, one of the self-described protectors of Mauna Kea, said Monday, which marked the 68th day of occupation.

"If everything prior to this point was a failure, we have to argue that the TMT is the largest failure. Yet the governor is willing to allow it to go through and says he will enforce their right to do so. They claim to want to take better care of the mountain, and we agree, but we want them to take better care right now. And that starts with TMT."

The project — a partnership between universities and astronomy institutions in the U.S., India, China, Japan and Canada — is expected to be the most powerful optical telescope in the world, capable of seeing more than 13 billion light-years away.