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One-month Biocultural Immersion Itinerary Geoversity’s Biocultural Leadership Program

A Life Changer Program by

This One-month Biocultural Immersion includes both profound leadership training and Geoversity's Ocean to Ocean Expedition: sailing, biking, hiking, and paddling across Panama from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

Itinerary

Day 0 and before:

Arrival ahead of time is recommended for climatizing. All team members will meet for dinner the evening before program start for an introduction to main faculty and initial logistics.

Days 1-2

The Introduction

We’ll break the ice and get to know each other while trekking a full day in Geoversity's urban tropical forest campus, Gun Hill.

Each individual is invited to identify and reflect upon a non-static passion-based topic for personal guidance for the entire month.

A natural history introduction to urban forest conservation issues related to the iconic Panama Canal, one of the world’s most impressive engineering feats and to indigenous peoples’ human rights, territories and challenges in Panama.

Gun Hill - Panama Canal

You’ll meet grassroots and role model civic and youth leaders uniquely qualified to introduce you to the historic and current realities of life in a rapidly growing metropolis and to related global climate change issues.

Juan Carlos Monterrey (youngest COP governmental climate change negotiator) and Raisa Banfield (ex-Panama City mayor in function) sharing their experiences.

Introduction to the full month itinerary and main disciplines: biomimicry, system-, pattern- and design thinking; and working tools, like Geospatial storytelling and 7Vortex.

Days 3-5

EmberáExpedition in the indigenous Ejua So territory

Embera medicine man transfers knowledge about wonders from nature's evolution onwards to participants. Even COVID-19 has a cure found in plant medicine yet unknown to modern science.

Take a deep dive into history of colonization starting with the pre-Colombian roots of the Americas, with a warm welcome from the indigenous Emberá authorities and youth leaders who will be your guides on an unforgettable journey into their territory and culture.

Begin by learning about the complex workings of Emberá people in one of the most significant watersheds in the Western Hemisphere, encompassing the Chagres National Park and the Emberá lands that provide the flow of fresh water on which the great interoceanic canal and the fastest growing city in Latin America depend.

Learn about henna-style tattooing with plant ink

During overnights in a traditional riverside Emberá village, you will benefit from Geoversity’s years of experience collaborating with indigenous communities by exploring and digital mapping, as you gain insights into ecology and tough sociological issues such as indigenous territorial rights and struggle against cattle ranching.

Take part in preparing traditional meals

Days 6-7

The Historic Crossroads of the Americas

Understand from the insiders how the Panama Canal created a black peoples' culture, and a global geographic and financial hub.

Get to know how Panama is struggling to transition toward a green economy & society.

The Americas' Bridge across the Panama Canal

By bicycle, we take a look from the inside at political struggles for urban space along the Panama Canal.

Marginalized peoples themselves share their story of struggle for an equative everyday life in the old town center, Casco Antiguo.

You’ll enjoy an interpretative tour of the Frank Gehry-designed Biomuseo introducing the biodiversity and natural history of Panama, the “land bridge that changed the world”.

Days 8-12

Sailing Pacific Islands

Learn coastal navigation and sailing techniques from the explorer Claus Kjaerby while negotiating the challenges of teamwork on the high seas.

Explore remote islands and sail into mangroves.

On the first day, technical sailing and navigation skills will be passed on while sailing along the coast. Following an island night anchorage in a marine protected area, we set of for the Pearl Islands Archipelago on a team building mission: The Pearl Challenge.

Imagine getting professionally inspired by learning from sea currents and hands on weather patterns and about marine life while snorkeling near a major whale migratory path.

Painted Ghost Crab, Pearl Islands

“My crew, first time out on the open sea, had the boat pointed in the right direction and the sails trimmed to perfection - all pleased with our speed through the water. However, when prompted to check our instruments, then everyone was startled to see that we were in fact moving backwards Experiencing that we all operate within larger systems – like ocean currents - makes us appreciate the imperative of seeing and thinking systemically. Our best efforts at changing the world, especially human behavior, will otherwise have no positive effect.” Claus Kjaerby, Captain, Geoversity"

Journey from Ocean to Ocean: Pacific to Caribbean

Days 13-14

Explore the Living Bridge of the Americas

After cruising on sailboat, start your immersion in tropical dry forest and restoration ecology. Transition onto mountain bikes at the Pacific coast mangroves to end two days later at Geoversity's rainforest campus in the Mamoní Valley Preserve.

Quality mountain bikes and helmets are provided for your 2-day cycling journey into the Mamoní Valley.
Your trek begins in the Río Bayano Delta, a Ramsar Site and one of the Pacific Basin’s most significant wetlands. On sailboat, you’ll explore mangrove forests that attract millions of migrating shorebirds every year, and that are so essential for climate resiliency.
The wetlands east of Panama City provide shelter for 30 percent of the global populations of 36 North American migratory bird species
Enter the Mamoní Valley Preserve on Mountain Bike

Days 15-23

The Mamoni Valley Preserve

The Mamoní Valley Preserve, Geoversity’s main campus, is a 12,500-acre (4,800 hectares) land conservancy. It includes 4,000 acres of protected primary forest at the narrowest stretch of the Central American Isthmus, and the Preserve borders to the north, along the Continental Divide, the autonomous territory of the indigenous Guna people and, to the west, the watershed of the interoceanic canal encompassing Emberá communities and the Chagres National Park. Located only a 15 miles (25 km) straight line distance from Panama's capital, it is within the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena eco-region —one of the 25 most threatened ecological hotspots on Earth.

The Mamoní Valley Preserve will be your tropical rainforest campus.
Our vision for the Mamoní Valley Preserve is for it to become a peaceful place where plants, people and animals coexist harmoniously in a thriving rainforest environment, for positive global impact.

While in Mamoní...

Support Ongoing Conservation

Analyze and learn from Geoversity’s ecology and conservation strategies applied to the Mamoní Valley.

Learn about field study methods and the habitat protection projects taking place at the Preserve and now getting global attention with help of the Mamoní Natural History Project.

At Geoversity's Agroforestry site you will become inspired to live sustainably with permaculture practices and bamboo raw materials in mind.

Join staff and volunteers at by sharing some of the day-to-day chores with the gardens, culinary experiments, and facility maintenance at Geoversity's leadership training and research facility, Centro Mamoní.

One of the gardens at Geoversity's Agroforestry Site

Hike to La Zahina community to meet the Mamoní Valley communities and learn from Geoversity’s neighbourly relations and community development strategies.

La Zahina community house
Find unique wildlife and plunge into the pools of the La Zahina falls

Build on your technical Skills and Worldviews

The PanaMapping Project in the Mamoní Valley Preserve is helping us to “transform our understanding of Nature's systems and the interdependence that characterizes all life on Earth.”

Join Geoversity’s wilderness guides as they share with you their experiences in the field

Prepare for the second leg of your Ocean to Ocean journey on a full day trekking and rafting trip within the Mamoní Valley Preserve. You'll be practicing wilderness guide skills to earn the technical skills needed to stay safe, manage emergencies and group dynamics, and document for storytelling from a spatial perspective as you lead expeditions.

You will join a workshop with Guna indigenous peoples to learn from their worldview and hear their interpretation of the realities happening around us.

Develop Adaptive Leadership Skills

Join biomimicry expert and dean of Geoversity's GeoSchool, Dr. Tamsin Woolley-Barker, to further develop your ability to apply Ecological Seeing and Adaptive Leadership skills as you’re led through nature to experience how the art of systems thinking can help you break-down nature’s creative solutions.

Learn about land-use choices made by rural communities and the challenges of transitioning into sustainable practices in a region dominated by cattle ranching and logging.

Engaging local school children in garden, tree planting projects and the mapping and restoring of their surroundings lead to respect and love for the dynamics of a healthy watershed.

Days 24-28

Expedition to the Caribbean Coast of the Guna People

Gunayala is one of three self-government territories of the Guna people and a forested corridor of steeply sloped land stretching 232 miles from the Colombian border and includes 365 low-lying coastal islands.

From Ridge to Reef...

Begin the next leg of your Ocean to Ocean expedition by hiking up from Centro Mamoní to the Continental Divide ridge and, joined by Guna leaders, prepare for a life changing descent on foot and pack rafts through virgin forest and sacred rivers to their Atlantic coast.

Along the way, you’ll learn about Guna culture, history, and struggles for autonomy, reaching back to Balboa’s “discovery” of the South Sea.

Spend time in the traditional Guna village of Gan Igar that was nearly swept away by record river floods, the first of the many Guna people you’ll be meeting suffering the catastrophic effects of global climate change and globalization.

Eventually you’ll paddle through the mangroves and out to the sea for your first view of the Guna coastal islands.

You’ll be on jaguar trails, navigating the rapids of the Río Cangandi and setting up camp riverside in remote wilderness far from roads and tourists.

Camp in expedition hammocks.
Learn how natural resources from the rainforest are used for day-to-day living.

As guests of the Guna Congress, your island base will be Anmardup, one of Gunayala’s 365 islands that is now under management by Guna youth led by one of the Guna Geoversity leaders and the founder of the Guna Youth Congress, Iniquilipi Chiari.

Enjoy some downtime in Gunayala.

Learn about the concerns of Guna elders and youth activists and how they seek to ensure their livelihoods and protect fragile marine environments while suffering the devastating effects of a rising sea.

A camp site you will never want to leave.

You’ll be in dialogue with Guna elders and youth about their experiences with and responses to the impact of western modernity and global climate change on their traditional ways of life and livelihood.

Guna Community, Cardi Sugdub

Dive into the crystal clear, bath-like waters to study natural versus artificial reef habitats.

Learn about fragile marine ecosystems and help protect them before they are all destroyed.

Before being transported back to Panama City after your once-in-a-lifetime, One-Month Biocultural Immersion Program...

Join your Guna friends in artisanal spear-fishing to remove invasive lionfish and documenting their species count and pervasiveness throughout the Caribbean.
Deemed a “Magical Destination” by National Geographic Travel, the Mamoní Valley is home to unique pairings of ecological restoration, rural development, scientific research, and life-changing learning adventures for indigenous people, global youth and business leaders.

Get ready for rigorous coaching and high expectations from your peers and mentors for breakthrough achievement.

About Geoversity

Geoversity is Nature’s University with the mission of creating conservation communities and empowering biocultural leaders committed to renewing and growing our unity with nature.

Geoversity leads a growing ecosystem of individuals and organizations united in the mission of biocultural renewal. Our programs are grounded in the hard day-to-day work of watershed conservation and the fight to avert global ecological collapse, always in team with local communities, indigenous authorities and youth activists. We offer immersive learning experiences, guided by applied science, natural design and indigenous wisdom, for emerging and accomplished biocultural leaders.

The ecosystem is nourished by real places, conservation communities starting with the Mamoní Valley Preserve.

Geoversity’s natural campuses and our learning and leadership programs are administered by the not-for-profit Geoversity Foundation in the U.S. and the Fundación Geoversity in Panama.

Our vision: A world where humans fully embrace our unity with nature.

info@geoversity.org

+507 6727 8897 (Atala Beckford)

Facebook & Instagram @Geoversity

www.Geoversity.org

Fundación Geoversity, Calle Henry 389A, City of Knowledge/Ciudad del Saber, Panama City, Panama