Amazon Crossings

The Amazon Crossings expeditions are planned to encourage   association, intermingling, and exchange of ideas on present global   issues faced by rural and urban populations of the world. In doing so we   also provide the framework to motivate and support the development of   community eco-tourism – a business that thrives on the conservation of   the Amazon’s cultural and natural resources. This is one of the unique   features our program and which distinguishes us from other eco-tourism   initiatives.

The Amazon Crossings project was designed primarily to serve as a vehicle for rural-urban youth to cross over the traditional barriers of   fear, prejudice, and ethnocentrism to systematically cultivate together attitudes, habits and even alternative income generation alternatives among the rain forest communities and in doing so, to encourage them to   assume their role of the ideal explorers and preservers of the Amazon river basin.

The name Amazon  Crossings was inspired by a  geographic phenomena   just a few miles south of the city of Manaus where two great rivers  meet  or “cross” each other. The differences in color, temperature, and  speed  are such that the waters do not mix for  miles. However, the  waters  eventually do mix and form the single largest running sweet  water  reserve of the planet known as the Amazon River.

Our goal is to take advantage of the powerful  educational   potential of eco-tourism to facilitate the intermingling of  diverse   people. The dramatic natural exuberance of the Amazon basin provides a   fertile meeting ground for urban and rural populations to develop their   potential for the exercise of world citizenship. We  believe that “when local people are involved in an ecosystem as   an industry, they become the best [environmental] protectors” as   expressed by Edward O. Wilson in his book Biophilia (Harvard University   Press, 1984).

Amazon Crossings is an initiative of World Citizenship Development Services a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to developing world citizenship. We believe that the practice of world citizenship and    the acquisition of inter-cultural perspectives are indispensable if our world community is to find a lasting and effective approach to the    peaceful resolution of global issues such as human rights, environment and sustainable development. Our mission is to promote the practical exercise of world   citizenship at  the urban and rural grassroots as a sustainable solution   to the  challenges of global society. Lasting solutions to global cultural and environmental issues are likely to emerge when a spirit of   responsible  citizenship is enhanced to embrace the planet as “one country and  mankind its citizens”.