Why do people volunteer?

Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne relies heavily on our amazing community of volunteers. Our volunteers help us with a wide range of tasks and activities. They come from all walks of life and are passionate supporters of the work we do. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them.  

Across Aotearoa New Zealand a similar spark has ignited communities to help eradicate introduced predators from our land so that our native species can thrive. But why do people get involved? What do they get out of it? And why do they keep at it?

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Predator Free 2050 is a long-term national initiative to rid New Zealand’s 26.4-million-hectare mainland of key introduced predators (possums, mustelids, and rats) to promote flourishing native biodiversity and improved well-being for New Zealanders. However, this goal exceeds the current capacity of national, regional, and local governments. Harnessing the momentum of hundreds of community conservation projects and obtaining the participation of local people is central to achieving and maintaining this goal.

Despite the importance of local communities in predator control, little is known about the people who actually do the work. To investigate the factors that contribute to people’s involvement and long-term commitment to mammalian predator control in Wellington City, we carried out an online survey of 311 Wellington City residents, who were mostly involved in predator control in some way.

What?

Respondents carried out a wide range of activities in predator control. While some were activities you might expect, such as setting and maintaining traps, they also organised community groups, raised funds, and were involved in educating local communities, such as schools.

Our survey respondents contributed a lot of time to this work.  The ‘average volunteer’ in our study donated 2 -3 hours, once a month for 2 -5 years. This amounts to around $4,600.00 per person (based on the 2023 living wage of NZ$26 per hour). But over a third of people contributed even more time than that.

Where?

About half of the people told us they did their predator control work as part of a community group located near where they lived.  An exception to this was people who volunteered at large organisations, such as Zealandia and Capital Kiwi, who travelled from more distant suburbs to do their predator control work.

Why?

People were motivated by their personal values to participate in predator control. They were acting to care for the environment and our native species. Alongside this, people wanted to build social connections and said they valued the opportunity to escape from the pressures of daily life and get some exercise.

Alongside helping the environment, people themselves benefitted from their work. They derived a real sense of personal satisfaction, felt fulfilled, and felt they were making a valuable contribution to their communities. And they also developed a stronger attachment to the site where they worked which of itself can provide a sense of meaning and belonging to the community.

Long-term commitment depended on the extent to which people’s motivations for participating were met and the extent to which they received benefit from being involved. Interestingly, people who were part of a community group demonstrated greater commitment to predator control than those who were not part of a group and derived greater benefits.

What now?

Our research can assist managers in developing strategies to engage and retain volunteers and make environmental volunteering a mutually beneficial experience for the natural environment and people. For example, understanding the wider functions participation in ecological restoration plays for volunteers can help enhance volunteers’ experiences and encourage broader participation from underrepresented groups.   

Volunteers are an extremely valuable resource, and they commit a significant amount of time, skills, and energy to the success of environmental projects, which without their efforts may be unachievable.

Read more about this research conducted by Dr Julie Whitburn and Dr Danielle Shanahan of Zealandia.