Support the Indigenous Bribri People in Yorkin, Costa Rica

This is a project for the management, conservation and sustainable use of native palms in the vicinity of La Amistad International Park, PILA. It is an initiative that promotes the biodiversity of the rainforest and the indigenous identity of the Bribri people. The project is led by the Bribri families of the Stibrawpa indigenous association, in the community of Yorkin, Bratsi district, in the canton of Talamanca, in the southern Caribbean area of Costa Rica.

WHO WE ARE

Our village Yorkin is an idyllic and peaceful spot on the very edge of Costa Rica, alongside the border with Panama. It lies inside the Indigenous Bribri Territory of Talamanca and we are about 300 people living here. It's here that 28 years ago, we founded the Stibrawpa Association, aiming to find ways to improve our living conditions. What started with the sales of handicrafts later turned into a community based tourism project.

We invite foreigners to visit our village and to learn about our traditions and our way of life. Through the means of tourism we are able to create jobs for more than 50 people, to protect our rainforest and to strengthen our indigenous culture. We managed to raise funds to build a high school and basic health care facilities and support other projects in the community.

WE WANT OUR FORESTS PVC-FREE!

In Talamanca it is very hot due to climate change, and many families are returning to traditional roof construction. They are changing their PVC roofs for palm roofs, again! That's all well and good, but if too many people harvest palm trees carelessly to build their roofs, we will run out of palm trees and that could damage biodiversity and our culture and traditions.

That's why we want to plant 2,000 Suita and Chonta palm trees, outside the virgin rainforest and close to our cocoa plot. This way we will provide sustainable management and take care of the virgin rainforest. 

As you know, PVC and polycarbonate sheets, although they protect families from rain, raise the temperature inside homes to unbearable levels and take more than 1,000 years to disintegrate naturally in the environment.

The construction of roofs with palm leaves is a millenary ancestral technique based on indigenous wisdom and cosmovision, a way of building houses that Stibrawpa families still maintain! We are returning to our traditions and identity, but we have to do it with awareness and responsibility, taking care of biodiversity and the rainforest.

This is a virtuous initiative that promotes the biodiversity of the rainforest, the nutrition of our soils and the indigenous identity of the Bribri people. But it also contributes to diversify the income of the Bribri families of Yorkin, through the sale of palms for the manufacture of roofs!. So let's reforest the jungle with endemic palms!

Your donations will help us conserve the rainforest and the biodiversity that depends on it, including our species. We want less PVC roofs in our rainforests and more palm roofs! The project will directly benefit the 40 members of Stibrawpa and their families, and in the long run impact the economic situation of Yorkin and its neighboring communities.

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HELP US BUILD AN AQUEDUCT!!

Sá di kianá, ready, sufficient, clean and safe water! 40 families from the Bribri indigenous community of Yorkin, in Talamanca, Costa Rica, are looking for support to build a new aqueduct.

The current supply has restrictions and the presence of cattle on the Panamanian side makes us fear a possible water shortage.
Support our project and help us to avoid an eventual collapse of the water supply! 

We need $17,000 to pay for 1 kilometer of piping, a ten thousand liter tank and a flyover structure. In 2024 we start with a base fund of $3,000 donated by Planeterra of Canada. 

Join us in our mission to bring safe, clean and sufficient drinking water to the community! If you donate from the U.S. your donation is eligible for a tax deduction.

Your donation benefits: + 300 people
+ 40 families and
+ 40 cultural and productive enterprises led by women.

The project for the construction of a new aqueduct is led by the Stibrawpa Association of indigenous families, an organization that promotes community life, the Bribri culture, as well as the conservation and sustainability of forests and biodiversity.
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For more information about us and our projects please contact emily@amigosdecostarica.org