SUA in the Amazon: Partnership with Soka Amazon Institute Opens Door to New Study Tour

September 04, 2024

• Campus News

SUA students will soon have the opportunity to experience hands-on learning in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet: the Amazon rainforest. In July, SUA President Ed Feasel signed a memorandum of understanding with the Instituto Soka Amazônia (the Soka Amazon Institute), paving the way for future collaboration between the institute and SUA.

Established in 2014 by SUA founder Daisaku Ikeda, the Soka Amazon Institute is located on the Dr. Daisaku Ikeda Private Natural Heritage Reserve, 128 acres of protected rainforest in Manaus, Brazil. The institute is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization with a mission to "cultivate harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature to guarantee the ecological integrity of the Amazon." Their four main areas of focus are protecting biodiversity; performing and supporting scientific research; providing environmental education; and aiding local communities impacted by environmental challenges like drought. The institute regularly partners with local universities and other nonprofit organizations that work in conservation and environmental justice.

While the primary reason for President Feasel's recent visit to Manaus was to attend the celebration of the Soka Amazon Institute's 10th anniversary, he also participated in a roundtable discussion on sustainability education organized by local universities. He made important connections with representatives from the State University of Amazonas (UEA) and the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), agreeing to move toward signing a memorandum of understanding with each university in the near future.

For SUA students, the new partnership with the Soka Amazon Institute means that they will regularly have the opportunity to visit the institute as part of a study tour, with the first group projected to travel to Manaus during spring break 2025. Utilizing a similar structure as the United Nations Study Tour that SUA organizes each year, the Amazon Study Tour will give students a chance to learn more about careers in sustainability while assisting with research, habitat restoration, humanitarian aid, eco-friendly local businesses, and a number of other projects that the Soka Amazon Institute and its partners facilitate.

A faculty member will lead the study tour, and each year the group will focus on a different topic in environmental studies, ecology, public health, or another subject relevant to the work that takes place at the institute. Soka students will also visit UEA and UFAM to meet with local faculty and students who are studying or doing research in the study tour's focus area. President Feasel believes that practical learning experiences, such as the Amazon Study Tour, have a profound impact on students' education at SUA.

"They stand out for our students, when they think about their future," he said. "Whether it's going to graduate school or work, I think it helps them to be able to point to these real-world, unique opportunities."

One lesson he hopes students will take away from the Amazon Study Tour is how sustainability functions as an inextricable part of daily life in Manaus because of the city's critical location in the Amazon. Throughout his visit, Feasel explained, he was reminded of Soka education pioneer Tsunesaburō Makiguchi's seminal book, The Geography of Human Life. In this book, Makiguchi explores the intimate relationship between human beings and the environments in which they live.

"And being in Manaus, being in the Amazon, I could feel that this focus on sustainability was so much more heightened than any other place I've been," he said. "For our students, to be able to experience that would be life-changing, and it would bring sustainability to another level in their lives."

The Soka Amazon Institute itself is located in an extraordinary part of Manaus, along the banks of the Encontro das Águas (the Meeting of Waters), where the light, sand-colored Solimões River merges with the inky dark Rio Negro. For a stretch of over three miles, the waters from each river do not mix, instead running side by side while maintaining their distinct colors, temperatures, and pH levels.

"I actually was able to go in a boat to the point where they meet," President Feasel said, "and you could put your hand in the water and feel the temperature difference. It's nature reminding us of its beauty, but also its mystery."

He compared this awe-inspiring experience to the first time he viewed Saturn from the Nieves Observatory at SUA.

"It was a similar type of impact," he said. "It really leaves quite an impression. I want our students to have that full experience."

The Amazon Study Tour will function under the auspices of the Soka Institute for Global Solutions (SIGS), which already supports ongoing projects in the areas of nuclear abolition, global citizenship education, and peace and reconciliation in East Asia. Now, starting with the partnership with the Soka Amazon Institute, SIGS will also focus on projects in sustainability.

"One of SUA's core principles is to foster leaders for the creative coexistence of nature and humanity," said President Feasel. "I think this partnership goes a long way toward doing that."