
The 2025 season is from April 7 to October 27, 2025.
As a participant of the Mother Nature Environmental Conservation Camp Japan you will stay on the grounds of the beautiful historic Chokokuji Temple on Sado Island and volunteer in environmental conservation, especially for the protection of the Crested Ibis, and cultural heritage preservation. As part of local communities you will have the chance to get to know a piece of rural and traditional Japan, which is typically not accessible to you as a normal tourist or when staying at larger cities.
Staying at Chokokuji Temple
Accommodation and base of our Mother Nature Conservation program in Japan is the Chokokuji Temple. The temple is said to have been founded in the year 807 by the Buddhist monk Kukai and houses a variety of cultural treasures. It is located on the slopes of the southern mountains of Sado in a relatively central location and is still actively used for religious purposes. As a volunteer, you will participate, often alongside Japanese volunteers, in a variety of activities. A weekly activity plan is created with diverse tasks. You will be staying in a fully furnished tent in the attractive garden grounds of the temple.
How can you get involved as a volunteer?
As a volunteer you will participate in a variety of activities for which our volunteer coordinator creates a weekly plan of activities.
(Click on the activity to read more and see pictures!)
Chokokuji is one of the largest and most culturally significant temples on Sado. Due to the declining population and the advanced age of the local residents, it is now visited by only a small number of people for religious purposes. The temple’s upkeep cannot be financed through donations from these few individuals. The 87-year-old monk and his wife are solely responsible for the operation and maintenance of the temple.
As a volunteer, you will assist at least once a week with light maintenance and cleaning work on the temple grounds, as well as some light gardening. A special concern of the monk is the temple’s gardens, which shine in vibrant colors throughout the seasons with a variety of blooming plants, including azaleas, hydrangeas, and cosmos.
Groups of schoolchildren regularly visit the temple, and you will prepare activities for the children to engage in during their visit, such as crafts.
Japanese and foreign tourists visit the temple year-round, especially from spring to autumn. The monk offers guided tours and spiritual experiences such as sutra writing, Zen meditation, and Buddhist sermons, which visitors can take part in. You will help the monk prepare these tourist offerings and support the temple with social media marketing.
Our volunteers launched and have been running a small shop since the 2024 season, selling devotional items from Chokokuji Temple, fair trade products, and locally produced natural goods to tourists to generate a small additional income for the temple’s preservation.
Various local organizations and individuals on Sado carry out activities related to the habitat restoration of the Japanese Crested Ibis, in which you can participate. These mainly involve working in rice fields, such as creating ditches between the fields and working on irrigation systems that ensure small organisms remain accessible year-round as food for the ibises. Additionally, we maintain biotopes and carry out activities to improve biodiversity and water quality.
To stay informed about the details of the ibis reintroduction efforts, we regularly visit the government-run Japanese Crested Ibis Breeding and Research Center and the Japanese Crested Ibis Visitor Park.
A Bamboo is an extremely fast-growing raw material that can replace plastic and other, less sustainable materials in various applications. On Sado, there is a Bamboo Club that regularly conducts creative bamboo crafting workshops for our volunteers, sometimes joined by Japanese youth groups. You will first learn to make simple objects like cups and chopsticks. Depending on the Bamboo Club’s projects, our volunteers also participate in other bamboo-based initiatives, such as building a bamboo playground on Sobama Beach.
Once a week, we remove trash from a section of the beach or another natural area. During the summer months, families and tourists sometimes join in. Most of the waste we collect consists of nylon ropes and nets, other plastic waste from the fishing industry, construction materials like plastic pipes and cables, as well as packaging waste. By removing this waste from the beach, we prevent the tide from washing it back into the sea. The collected waste is picked up by the municipal waste disposal service and incinerated in a city waste facility that uses modern filtration technology.
Besides rice, many farmers on Sado grow persimmons, oranges, kiwis, shiitake mushrooms, and other fruits and vegetables. The surrounding forests are also cultivated.
We collaborate with various farmers who practice organic farming and can explain their principles to you. You will assist on their farms. For example, one farmer keeps ducks in the rice fields to eat potential pests, eliminating the need for chemical pesticides.
As a volunteer, you will regularly take part in activities carried out by the local community. These include working on Akiyas—abandoned houses. Due to the declining rural population in Japan, many houses have become abandoned and neglected. Some villages have about 80-90% abandoned buildings. In the village of Matsugasaki, for example, there is an abandoned workshop that belonged to Sado’s last blacksmith, who has since passed away. The remaining villagers wanted to preserve the memory of this traditional craft by converting the workshop into a small exhibition space. Volunteers from our program cleaned out the building and helped set up the exhibition. Other examples of community work include preparing for and participating in cultural festivals or events such as the annual Sado Marathon.
We regularly organize participation in workshops and presentations of traditional local culture. Once a year, we take part in building a traditional reed boat, which oyster fishermen used in the past. Other examples include learning to play the Noh flute, Taiko drumming, and Kyogen theater performances.
Typically, volunteers visit a local school or another children’s initiative once a week to teach kids about environmental protection. Besides environmental education, cultural exchange is also an essential part of these visits, where we play with the children and engage in sports.
The excessive use of chemical pesticides has led to the decline of insects, including valuable pollinators. We support wild bees by creating nesting areas for ground-nesting bees and making and installing insect hotels.
Program activities typically take place on 5.5 days per week. During your free time, you can organize activities independently or with other program participants, such as going to the beach, snorkeling, hiking, and sightseeing. You should also visit Sado’s gold mine—we will provide you with information about it. We also rent bicycles and kimonos at affordable prices. Snorkeling equipment is provided free of charge.
About Chokokuji Temple
The temple is said to have been founded in 807 by the Buddhist monk Kūkai. It houses numerous cultural treasures, including three eleven-headed Kannon statues, considered nationally significant cultural assets, said to have been crafted by Kūkai himself. These statues are displayed to the public only once every 33 years, with the next viewing scheduled for 2034.
The temple grounds feature three large cedar trees, believed to have spiritual power and estimated to be over 1,000 years old, as well as a Japanese umbrella pine tree over 500 years old. These ancient trees are designated as natural monuments by the prefecture.
About the Reintroduction of the Crested Ibis
The Japanese Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) is a bird measuring 54-88 cm in length with a wingspan of 140 cm. It was relatively common in Korea, China, Japan, and parts of Russia until the rise of industrial agriculture in the mid-20th century. However, habitat loss, particularly due to the use of chemical pesticides in rice fields that destroyed its food sources, pushed the species to the brink of extinction. By 1981, the species was officially declared extinct in the wild, and the last five Japanese ibises were captured to start a reintroduction program on Sado Island. In 2008, the first captive-bred ibises were released back into the wild. The first wild-born chicks were observed in 2012. Today, there are around 700 ibises on Sado Island and the neighboring Honshu mainland.
Did you know?
For the CO2 compensation of your long-haul flights, we plant 10 seedlings of native trees on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Info Box
![]() Location: Sado Island, Japan
Availability: arrival on Sado on Mondays Minimum duration: 1 week Maximum duration: 4-24 weeks depending on visa Language requirements: English Other languages of advantage: Japanese Accommodation: Chokokuji Temple on Sado Island |
![]() Supervision possible: No
Qualification Supervisor: -
Minimum Qualification Intern:
no formal qualification required Further project contribution: No |
![]() Volunteering possible: Yes
Expected Qualification Volunteer: None Further project contribution: No We expect: Professional work attitude, "the right attitude" |
I. World Unite! Service Package
Program Activities and Accommodation
First week 625 EUR. Any additional week +330 EUR. From the 10th week only +295 EUR/week.
This includes:
- Participation in all program activities (offered on 5.5 days/week)
- Orientation and Introduction at Chokokuji about the program activities
- Transfers for all program activities on Sado Island
- Accommodation in 4-share tent (you choose) [Single/Double occupancy possible at extra charge, see below]
- Full board (3 meals per day) incl. unlimited drinking water and tea
- Access to the World Unite! Online Resource Centre which has Preparation Materials including Intercultural Preparation, compiled particularly for your destination (mobile phone friendly Knowledge Base)
- Individual Consultation and Preparation prior to your arrival
- Preparation Session via zoom, together with further participants
- Support with the travel from Tokyo to Sado by our Tokyo team
- Pick-up and Transfers from/to Sado (Ryotsu) Ferry Terminal on arrival (Mondays) and departure (Mondays or Fridays) to/from Mother Nature Camp Sado
- Personal support staff at your location and at our international office
- 24 Hours emergency support by local support team
- For the CO2 compensation of your long-haul flights: Costs for 10 seedlings of indigenous trees that we plant on the slopes of Kilimanjaro
- Issuance of Confirmations/Certificates for your university, scholarship, insurance, etc. and filling out/signing Internship Contracts for your university
The Rates do NOT include:
- Travel to/from Sado Island (you book it on your own; see details in the slider "Getting There" below)
- Insurance (Travel Health Insurance, Liability Insurance, Travel Cancellation insurance; you book it on your own, we can assist you)
- Personal Expenses
- Vaccinations
- Weekend leisure activities
II. Accommodation Costs
Surcharge twin occupancy at a tent (compared to 4-share tent): +60 EUR/week per person.
Surcharge single occupancy tent (compared to 4-share tent): +100 EUR/week per person
Children under 14 only pay 150 EUR/week.
Children under 14 only pay 150 EUR/week.
* Participants not booking together will be separated by gender in the rooms
The island is of extreme scenic natural beauty, with 288 km of rocky coastline, dense forests, terraced ricefields and a northern and southern mountain range reaching an altitude of 1172 meters. Sado is sparsely populated, with the vast majority of the population of around 55,000 living in Sado City in the flat middle part of the island. The island has an oceanic climate with hot and humid summers and cool, humid winters.
The last Crested Ibis of Japan, which is a symbolic national bird in Japan (Nipponia nippon) died in Sado in 2003 due to the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on rice fields. Since then, an internationally renowned reintroduction program was successfully implemented in Sado, with birds from China being bred in captivity and released since 2008. The first hatchings in the wild were observed in 2012. Today there are again around 440 Crested Ibises on Sado Island. The integration of the Sado rice farmers and the promotion of traditionally farmed, high quality organic rice from Sado Island were essential in the success of the reintroduction program.
Sado Island has been working hard in recent years to boost tourism and has some interesting and modern landmarks, such as the Silver and Gold Mine, the Toki Park for breeding Crested Ibises and numerous hiking trails, natural sites and beaches. There are also tourist offers such as scuba diving, boat trips and more.
World Unite! is a cooperation partner of the Sado Island Tourism Association, whose office near the ferry port we share.

From the Ryotsu Ferry Port on Sado, you will be picked up by us at no additional cost on a Monday and taken back there on either a Monday or Friday.
You can take the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Niigata (just under 2 hours) and then take the ferry (about 1.5 hours) to Ryotsu/Sado.
If you are farther away in Japan, you can also book a domestic flight to Niigata City, take a city bus to the ferry port, and then take the ferry to Ryotsu/Sado.
Your arrival in Tokyo:
For a small additional fee, you can add the following: You can arrive in Tokyo (Haneda or Narita) on a Friday between 8 am and 8 pm, and we will pick you up from the airport and accompany you to our sharehouse. There, you will spend 3 nights in a dormitory room. On Monday morning, you will then continue your journey to Sado.