Journey to Light: from the Amazon Rainforest to One of the Five Great Forests of Mesoamerica

Rosemary (Local Project Coordinator) in the Talamanca rainforest of Costa Rica during project implementation

The New Adventure

Two years ago we embarked on a new chapter of our adventure to create clean, safe, and independent energy access for the most vulnerable people in the hardest to reach places on Earth. From the low-land plains and curvy rivers of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, we expanded our work to one of the Five Great Forests of Mesoamerica, the Talamanca rainforest in the Atlantic region of Costa Rica.

Solar technician team preparing the cummunity training in Orochico, Talamanca

Family/end-user solar energy training in the Cabécar community Orochico, Talamanca

We have partnered with the local indigenous organization ‘Asociación de Desarrollo Integral del Territorio Talamanca Cabécar’ (ADITICA) and the Cabécar communities to bring light and electricity to indigenous families living deep in the jungle mountains with no road or river access. The Cabécar Indigenous Nation in Costa Rica inhabits the most remote places of the country. I, as a Costa Rican, even dare to say that very few people in my country know that there are families living in the lush and mighty mountain tops of this great forest. Costa Rica is a small country, but when it comes to its jungle, a whole new Universe opens up!

Solar team transporting tools and materials through the tropical forest, Talamanca

Cabécar families helping to transport solar system materials to their remote households in the rainforest

Talamanca: Home of the Most Remote Cabécar Communities

The vast mountain range is home to numerous Indigenous families who do not have access to electricity. At times, the families use candles or flashlights, but only when they are fortunate enough to buy them. Most families have to walk through the jungle for several hours, if not multiple days, sometimes even weeks, to reach the nearest road access that leads to the closest town. The Cabécar communities organize life without a monetary system and families usually do not have any income. When they do, it is extremely low, a few dollars per family per month which is barely enough to buy a candle or to restock their batteries for a rusty old flashlight. Living without light is a real struggle and negatively impacts almost every area of life, especially for women and children who often carry the greater burden of energy poverty.

Cabécar family in the Talamanca rainforest during project implementation 2019

The rivers that flow through the green chain of mountains in this region are not navigable. They are fierce and have taken a heavy toll on the people. Transporting the equipment, tools, and materials of the solar home systems by canoes, as we did in the Amazon rainforest, was not an option in the jungle mountains in Talamanca. Batteries weigh almost 50 kg each, to which we must add the big solar panels, tubes, cables, mounting structures, and so forth.

Cabécar Indigenous women transporting the 50kg batteries to their remote homes in the jungle

The Cornerstone of the Work: Collaboration

As part of the solar energy initiative, we work on establishing strategic alliances that support the implementation of the projects. In Costa Rica, the government, through the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), has supported the initiative by financing the necessary helicopter flights in and out of the mountain rainforest communities to transport the material and equipment as well as the project team. Once the material reaches the community, it is the families themselves who transport the materials to their houses. This means carrying all the heavy components through rivers, up and down muddy hill trails for hours until they reach their final destination.

Loading and unloading of solar system materials in the Cabécar community Orochico, Talamanca

The Heart of the Initiative

In the last two years, we have built an amazing team of Indigenous solar technicians, including women empowerment facilitators and leaders. They devote their time and tireless efforts to go into the most remote communities to bring tremendous joy through the installation of the solar home systems and the creation of safe and trustworthy spaces for women and their families. On this, I will talk to you more in detail in another coming blog post!

Iris, Bribri solar technician, resting after a three hour walk through the jungle, Talamanca

Part of the solar team at the mountain top ready to start installations, so a family can have light and electricity for the first time in their lives

The team has unstoppable stamina, full of energy, laughter, and good spirit as they live and work together for several weeks in a row in the different remote rainforest communities. Under the coordination of the solar leading Indigenous technician, each one of them knows exactly what to do. After walking for a complete day to reach one house, they start the installation process of the solar home systems right upon their arrival. No matter if it is raining, extremely hot and humid or almost dark. They know they are there to do one thing: provide light to the family for the first time in their lives. No matter how tired, wet, sored, or hungry they are, they make sure no family is left behind.

Solar team preparing the cement foundation for the mounting structures of the solar panels

Giovanny, Cabécar solar technician, preparing the mounting structure for the solar panels

Cabécar solar technicians together with Ai-Kofan solar technician from the Amazon, Ecuador mounting the solar panels

Iris, Bribri solar technician, installing the LED lights under the leave roof of the house

Impact Beyond Clean and Safe Light

Solar energy for the Cabécar means to have more sustainable and more self-determined development opportunities. Our initiative shows that the use of innovative technology can go hand in hand with honoring and protecting ancestral Indigenous cultures and cosmovision. The project is community-owned and led by a new generation of Indigenous young leaders who are the present and the future of the great forests and the communities who have inhabited them for thousands of years.

Cabécar woman selecting and preparing coffee seeds in Orochico, Talamanca

Cabécar family with their solar home system in the rainforest of Talamanca

As the solar energy initiative grows, so do our ‘solar families’ and leading technicians. They are always ready for their next mission and excited to continue working together to (self-)empower Indigenous Nations by creating sustainable access to renewable energy and powering their lives in the ways they want to live. Thanks to their committed and resilient work, tropical forests, which absorb more than half of the world’s carbon dioxide, are being protected and guarded by Indigenous people who are strengthened to continue to live in harmony with and protect their ancestral homelands. Their survival, and ours, depend on that.

Traditional Cabécar house in the Talamanca rainforest next to the newly installed solar panels

Photographers: Nicole León, Alex Mundth, and Jose Obando