Peace Boat is a non-governmental and non-profit organization that conducts international voyages to promote awareness of key issues, including disaster relief, gender equality, global peace, and environmental sustainability. Peace Boat’s primary objective is to raise public awareness of and involvement in global issues—in particular the issues that the Sustainable Development Goals are set to tackle.

Since 1983, Peace Boat has been coordinating voyages that travel to all parts of the globe. Participants on Peace Boat consist of volunteers, lecturers, foreign language instructors, guest speakers, and funded participants. This dynamic allows for Peace Boat to be an engaging and thriving environment for participants to learn about the parts of the world they will be visiting. In Mexico, Peace Boat partnered with the Music & Art Peace Academy (MAPA) and PangeaSeed, an international marine conservation organization in Cozumel, to showcase artists’ murals on the island. This project aimed to bring ocean conservation to the forefront of the minds of youth. PangeaSeed gathered 30 artists from around the globe to participate in the event. In Panama, Peace Boat visited the Kuna and Embera indigenous communities. In partnership with them, Peace Boat has been helping them raise funds for reliable electricity, sanitation systems, and lavatories—basic amenities they cannot obtain from elsewhere. Peace Boat crowdfunded to raise at least 5,000 USD before its visit to Panama to help the community’s efforts. The organization has also been working to publish press releases to the Permanent Mission of Panama to the United Nations to raise awareness about the indigenous communities and Peace Boat’s initiative.

Peace Boat has approximately 1,000 participants on each voyage and continues to grow. To make Peace Boat an environmentally sustainable operation, participants are encouraged to engage in ecotourism; for example, participants have used biodegradable soap onboard instead of commercial brand soaps, which harm the ocean when drained. Furthermore, Peace Boat has undertaken a project to build the world’s first environmentally friendly cruise ship. It has already convened world experts in engineering, design, green technology and marine legislation to compose an initial design. Not only will this project make Peace Boat more environmentally sustainable, it will also tackle the SDG initiative through a change within the organization. Future visits to Latin America and other regions will have a minimal environmental impact, and will also educate the public and governments about the power and possibilities of green technology.

Peace Boat’s main office is located in Japan, with an office in New York and representation in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Colombia. The Japan office is responsible for coordinating voyages (dates, ports visited, onboard education programs) while the New York office (Peace Boat US) works with the United Nations and also organizes educational programs, oftentimes in partnership with other non-profit organizations.

Peace Boat, Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV), Mythic Bridge, Music & Art Peace Academy (MAPA), PangeaSeed, Parties 4 Peace, Universal Models for Peace, Unreasonable Institute