We are deeply grateful and joyful to announce that our local partner, Kabata Könana, the Indigenous Women Association serving the empowerment of Cabécar women in Costa Rica’s Talamanca Forest won the prestigious UNDP Equator Prize 2021.

The Equator Prize, organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme UNDP, recognizes the work of local and Indigenous organizations from across the world showcasing innovative, nature-based solutions for tackling biodiversity loss and climate challenges.

The Women’s Association Kábata Könana, meaning “Defenders of the Mountains” in partnership with Love For Life promote the use of traditional, regenerative practices and ancestral knowledge for food security and sovereignty, medicinal purposes, and strengthens women’s leadership and Indigenous rights while protecting their forest and culture.

It is within the framework of Love For Life’s women empowerment program that the “Estanco Indígena de Trueque Virtual” was created by our Indigenous partners Kábata Könana, the Association for the Integral Development of the Talamanca Cabécar territory (ADITICA), and the Indigenous Bribri and Cabecar network (RIBCA).

In the face of the ongoing health and socio-economic crisis in 2020, the women quickly established a virtual market based on communication technology and social media to trade and share food during the closure of regular markets. Indigenous women, trained as community coordinators, locally known as “weavers of knowledge”, have led the initiative with over 200 families of 15 communities. These families actively participate in the traditional production system for food sovereignty, sustainable change, and effective crisis response.

This prestigious recognition by the United Nations comes just one year after our local partner in the Amazon Alianza Ceibo also received the Equator Prize 2020 in honor of its integral strategies to protect Indigenous Rights and the Amazon, and for its extraordinary leadership of indigenous-led solutions to climate change.

With your support, we can continue to move not just money, but power, to Indigenous grassroots movements, organizations, and leaders.