Find Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers at Pouhala Marsh

Volunteers at Pouhala Marsh

Below are links to over 60 organizations with short-term environmental opportunities for volunteers like you!

Hawaiʻi Island (Big Island)
- Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden
- Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge
- Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge
- Hawaiʻi Hawksbill Turtle Recovery Project
- Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: Vegetation Program
- Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center (HWC volunteer projects on hold till facility is complete)
- Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund—Hawaiʻi Island
- The Kohala Center: ReefTeachers
Mokupapapa Discovery Center
- Na Ala Hele—Hawaiʻi Island
- School Gardens Network
Featured: Malaʻai (The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School)
- Sierra Club—Moku Loa (Hawaiʻi Island)
- Three Ring Ranch Exotic Animal Sanctuary

Kauaʻi
- Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park
- Hanalei Watershed Hui
- Hawaiian Monk Seal Conservation Hui (see sample listing)
- Hui o Laka: Kokeʻe Natural History Museum
- Kokeʻe Resource Conservation Program
- National Tropical Botanical Garden
- Sierra Club—Kauaʻi
- Surfrider Foundation—Kauaʻi
- Waipa Foundation

Maui
- Community Work Day Program
- East Maui Animal Refuge (a.k.a. The Boo Boo Zoo)
- Haleakala National Park
- Friends of Haleakala National Park
- Hawaiʻi Nature Center—Maui
- Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund—Maui
- Honokohau Valley Project (no website / see sample listing)
- Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge
Kipahulu ʻOhana: Kapahu Living Farm
- Maui Coastal Land Trust: Waiheʻe Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge
- Maui Cultural Lands: Projects Malama Honokowai and Malama Hanaula
- Maui Nui Botanical Gardens
- Maui Restoration Group
Na Ala Hele—Maui
- Native Hawaiian Plant Society
- Pacific Whale Foundation
- REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation)
- Project S.E.A.-Link
- FIN (Fish Identification Network)
- Surfrider Foundation—Maui

Molokaʻi
- Ka Honua Momona

Oʻahu
- ʻAhahui Malama i ka Lokahi
- ʻAINA In Schools
- Clean Water Honolulu
- Friends of Hanauma Bay
- Hawaiian Monk Seal Response Team Oʻahu
- Hawaii Audubon Society
- Hawaiʻi Nature Center—Oʻahu
- Honolulu Zoo Society
- Hoʻoulu ʻAina: Kalihi Valley Nature Park
- Hui o Ko’olaupoko
- ʻIhiʻihi Protection Team
- KAUPA—Kalihi Ahupuaʻa Ulu Pono Ahahui
- Lyon Arboretum
- Malama Na Honu
- Manoa Cliff Trail Project
- Na Ala Hele—Oʻahu
- Nani ʻO Waiʻanae
- Oʻahu Invasive Species Committee
- Sierra Club—Oʻahu
Surfrider Foundation—Oʻahu
- Wild Dolphin Foundation

Multi-Island
- Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary
- National Tropical Botanical Garden
- The Outdoor Circle
- Reef Check Hawaiʻi
- Sierra Club—Hawaiʻi Service Trip Program

Farm Apprenticeships
- HOFA
- WWOOF

(For a full description of the above projects, hardiness level, time commitment, advance notice, and to read volunteer stories from the field, check out Preserving Paradise, the book)

More Hawaiʻi Volunteer Resources

go to Hawaii Ecotourism Association

go to Art of Volunteering

go to Volunteer Hawaii

Responses

  1. [...] mainlander, but does this change your sense of who Hawaiians are today? And while there are lots of volunteer opportunities, most of them are nature focused, not human focused. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with [...]

  2. [...] PreserveHawaii.org has an expansive list of volunteer opportunities for nature initiatives on each of the Hawaiian islands. [...]