MAUI, HAWAII

Partnering with local ​tourism businesses and conservation organizations, this project aims to restore and protect native ohia and sandalwood trees, as part of the natural habitat of the i'iwi bird.

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This project is a collaboration between local industry, local community organizations and nonprofits, and in partnership with an international forest restoration volunteer initiative in China. This partnership seeks to restore balance to a 200-year-old historical relationship between Maui and China. The majority of cloud rainforest destruction in Maui was due to a global industry that sold sandalwood to China in exchange for other goods that brought wealth and unification to the Hawaiian islands under the rule of King Kamehameha.

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In a series of service learning ecotourism expeditions, "vacation volunteers" from China help plant trees on protected lands and contribute to the economic growth of the local ecotourism industry, while learning about the history of friendship between China and Maui.