Our Mission on O‘ahu & Maui

Hawai‘i Nature Center seeks to foster awareness, appreciation, understanding and stewardship of Hawai‘i’s environment by educating children with an interactive and immersive approach.

Branching Out: We teach children about nature

More than 1 million students have experienced the wonders of nature  through our children’s programs since we took root in 1981. 20,000 students come to us annually as our programs are one of the best things to do on Oahu and Maui, offer more green time and less screen time and cultivate character, compassion and stewardship through science-based learning. More than 100 O‘ahu schools and more than 20 on Maui choose to partner with us as our programs meet State of Hawaii’s Department of Education Standards and our curriculum makes learning fun.

Our Roots

Our mission started deep in a tropical rainforest in 1972 when the Outdoor Circle’s Parks Committee proposed an education center in O‘ahu’s Makiki Valley. Margaret Smith Young of Tantalus was a driving force in its early years. By 1981, the Makiki Environmental Education Center opened and five years later it grew in to an independent 501(c)3 non-profit called Hawai‘i Nature Center. In 1991, the organization branched out to Maui and established a center in sacred ‘Īao Valley where we offer a vibrant collection of programs. We are an environmental education nonprofit that is not a chapter of a larger organization. We are homegrown and rely on support from friends like you.