The invention belongs to the technical field of preparation of composites and relates to the preparation of lightweight porous structural microwave-absorbing material, in particular to a preparation method of lightweight porous nickel ferrite/carbon aerogel wave-absorbing material, comprising: extracting fibers from waste pericarps, lyophilizing, carbonizing at high temperature to obtain carbon aerogel, subjecting the carbon aerogel to hydrothermal reaction with nickel ferrite nano crystal at 150-200 DEG C for 7-16 h, and compositing. The wave-absorbing material prepared herein features largespecific surface area, small density, large porosity, good conductivity and good magnetism at the premise of retaining nickel ferrite magnetic effect, is capable of greatly absorbing electromagnetic wave under wide frequency by means of resistance loss, electromagnetic loss, interfacial polarization loss and multi-step reflecting absorption, has a minimum reflection loss of -20 dB to -50 dB duringuse, and has effective wave-absorbing bandwidth of 2 dB to 4 dB. The lightweight porous nickel ferrite/carbon aerogel wave-absorbing material prepared herein is widely applicable to radar hiding, electromagnetic interference shielding, microwave dark rooms and other fields, and has the advantages of wide range of source and low cost.