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How Volunteers Are Shaping Our Environment

Volunteers are the backbone of many social good movements and initiatives around the world. As we celebrate National Volunteer Week this year (18–24 May 2026) under the theme “Your Year to Volunteer” we’re keen to highlight some of the fundamental impacts of volunteering.

At Conservation Volunteers Australia, our volunteers help us to achieve our mission of conserving biodiversity and in so doing also reap the wellbeing benefits of spending time in nature. An often overlooked benefit of volunteering is the value of connection and sense of place and community that’s created when working together with other volunteers.

Find out more below about upcoming volunteering events across Australia with CVA, and get motivated by the powerful impacts of volunteering and how small actions can change the world.

CVA Volunteers Create Impacts for Nature, Community, and Wellbeing

As a volunteer with CVA, not only do you get to contribute towards building back biodiversity, but you also get to join a community of volunteers who share the same goals as you. And, while you take part in our volunteering activities – whether it’s helping to plant trees in parks, or weeding in wetlands – you’re also actively engaging in wellness activities.

Here are three ways that volunteering with CVA creates a better world:

Enhance biodiversity and your local environment

Restoring wetlands, cleaning beaches, and protecting endangered species all requires huge amounts of coordination and effort. Without volunteers who dedicate thousands of hours each year to helping us restore and protect local environments, we would not be able to achieve our mission of building back nature across the country.

Here are some examples of what CVA volunteers get involved in:

  • Active nature stewardship: Volunteers at CVA are more than just helpers; they are Nature Stewards. Since 1982, thousands of volunteers have helped us plant trees, remove alien plants, clean up waterways and beaches, build climate resilience, and more.
  • Building climate resilience and biodiversity: By restoring wetlands, planting urban shade forests, creating Nature Blocks and keeping waterways clean, our volunteers help build local climate resilience and build back biodiversity.
  • Protecting endangered species: Many CVA projects help to protect threatened and endangered species of plants and animals. This is achieved by creating vital habitat corridors that would be impossible to maintain without community hands and by maintaining wildlife sanctuaries like the one at Woodlands that helped bring the Eastern Barred Bandicoot back from extinction in the wild.

Foster a sense of community and place

When we stand together as volunteers and unite in a common cause or goal, there is a lot that we can achieve. Collectively, volunteers in Australia contribute thousands of hours of their time in social and environmental value.

At CVA, our volunteer events and experiences are an opportunity to get to know like-minded conservationists, thereby fostering a sense of community and shared purpose.  In our digital age, hands-on habitat restoration activities provide a rare opportunity for cooperative, face-to-face work. Studies show that having a sense of purpose (e.g. volunteering) can help reduce feelings of loneliness.

Conservation volunteering also offers a sense of place attachment. Taking care of a local park can help people feel more “at home” in their landscape.

Actively engage in your own wellbeing

Perhaps the most surprising benefit is what happens internally. Being an active volunteer with CVA means you get to move around outdoors, spend time in nature, connect with other people and take a break from work.

Make 2026 Your Year to Volunteer

National Volunteer Week is a reminder that we are all part of an incredibly complex and diverse web of life. When you volunteer your time to help protect and heal the Earth, the Earth gives back in the form of purpose, health, and community.

Ready to start volunteering? Check out our upcoming NVW events and find out more about general volunteering events near you.