Mālama Hawai‘i. Volunteer on Vacation.

Everyone — and we mean, EVERYONE — who gets to call Hawai‘i home is truly fortunate.

Think about it for a minute. We get to live, work and play on a collection of islands that is a natural wonderland like no other in the world. We get to call its many treasured landscapes and surrounding ocean our collective backyard. And when people from around the world ask if it’s really our home, we proudly get to say, “Yes, Hawai‘i is home.” Pretty awesome, right?

Just visiting the Hawaiian Islands? You’re in for some fortunate awesomeness, too. You get to discover, explore and experience our awe-inspiring natural world and learn about our many cultures, including our indigenous Hawaiian culture, whose traditions impart on all of us — both residents and visitors — a kuleana (responsibility) to mālama (care for) Hawai‘i.

Collectively, we aim to all mālama ‘āina (“care for the land”) by protecting and preserving our landscapes and natural resources, such as our streams, mountains, forests and even our state and national parks and trails. And we mālama kai (“care for the ocean”) by doing the same for our coastal areas and surrounding sea, keeping them free of debris and pollutants, and using their resources responsibly and sustainably.

In recent years, a growing number of Hawai‘i nonprofit groups and community organizations have been founded on missions of mālama, accomplishing many of their goals through volunteer community workdays dedicated to preserving, protecting and restoring our environment and cultural landmarks and inviting residents and visitors to help out and learn something while joining in. Participating in a volunteer activity is one of the best ways to discover Hawai‘i’s natural splendor up-close while positively impacting the ecological well-being of the Islands for years to come. Most voluntourism activities provide all the tools you’ll need for the work being done. Some even offer snacks and water. All you need to do is arrive with a desire to do some work in the great outdoors for free, get your hands dirty, maybe get your feet muddy, and do some real and very visible good for Hawai‘i’s natural world.As you plan your next visit to Hawai‘i, consider including in your itinerary a volunteer opportunity to mālama Hawai‘i. Here are a few to get your planning started:

Kāko‘o ‘Ōiwi Volunteer Workdays - O‘ahu

Prepare to get your hands in the dirt, your feet in the mud and your mind stocked with knowledge of early Hawaiian methods of sustainable farming and natural resource preservation on a day of volunteer work with this Hawaiian culture-focused nonprofit. Join in on one of Kāko‘o ‘Ōiwi’s volunteer workdays and you’ll learn about the planting and cultivating of the Hawaiian staple crop kalo (taro) by getting into a real lo‘i kalo (irrigated taro terrace) to help weed, plant and harvest. On the nonprofit’s wetland restoration workdays, volunteers help clear waterways, plant native species and remove invasive plants.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park Stewardship at the Summit - Island of Hawai‘i

Hawai‘i’s largest and most visited national park is about more than just active volcanoes. It’s also a nature-created nirvana of diverse landscapes, ecosystems and climate zones. Among these are the park’s vast, cool and misty rainforest acreage, filled with all manner of native and non-native flora and fauna. The park’s Stewardship at the Summit volunteer days blend a rainforest nature hike and work clearing trails of invasive species like the Himalayan ginger. Much of the volunteer work is done beneath the shade of the rainforest canopy, often accompanied by a soundtrack of bird calls from the likes of native honeycreepers like the ‘apapane and ‘amakihi, and the ‘ōma‘o, a native thrush.

Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park Weekly Beach Cleanups - Kaua‘i

Situated near the mouth of the calm and winding Wailua River on Kaua‘i’s east side, Lydgate Beach Park is one of the island’s most popular kid- and family-friendly beaches for swimming, picnicking and sand-castle building. Also popular with the keiki (kids) is the large wooden play structure of Lydgate’s Kamalani Playground and tranquil saltwater pools called Morgan’s Pond. The nonprofit Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park host a volunteer community workday every Saturday welcoming residents and visitors who love the park to help keep its waters and shoreline clean and clear from debris. Work tools, work gloves and coffee and treats are provided, and you can learn about the area from longtime volunteers you’ll meet.

Kipuka Olowalu Volunteer Workdays - Maui

Olowalu is an ahupua‘a (mountain-to-sea land division) on Maui’s west side once home to a Hawaiian fishing community and still rich with natural resources and early Hawaiian cultural sites. Since 2020, the nonprofit Kipuka Olowalu has worked largely through community support and volunteer workdays to protect the ahupua‘a’s lands and offshore reef area through restoration of lo‘i (agricultural terraces), replacing invasive flora with native species and perpetuating traditional Hawaiian cultural practices and protocols. Visitors and residents are welcome on weekly volunteer days to do some work, participate in Olowalu’s restoration, and learn about Hawaiian culture and agriculture and the area’s history

‘Āina Hoʻōla Initiative Volunteer Workdays - Island of Hawai‘i