Impact Spotlight

20 home solar systems providing electricity to 100 Indigenous people

Savings on kerosene create economic opportunities for Indigenous families

Technical capacity building and technician training programs for local leaders

About

Indigenous communities in Costa Rica’s Talamanca rainforest lack access to basic services, including energy, medical care, education, and the opportunity to cultivate sustainable livelihoods. While these communities have lived independently for thousands of years, threats of modern deforestation, land use changes, contamination, climate change, and socio-economic insecurities are multiplying. Indigenous territories that are difficult to access due to the absence of roads and harsh topographic and climatic conditions. The lack of river systems and waterways, as well as the steep mountain range, forces them to walk up for hours or even days to reach the nearest road or village. The Indigenous Cabecar and Bribri Peoples have preserved their cultural and historical traditions but have not been able to participate in national development and government social programs, making them one of the most economically poor and marginalized groups in Costa Rica.

Love For Life (LFL) promotes Indigenous self-determination, climate justice, and ecosystem conservation through sustainable access to off-grid solar energy and capacity-building in remote rainforest territories of Latin America. Their newest initiative is focused on conserving landscapes and promoting self-determined sustainable development of Indigenous Peoples across two biodiversity hotspots, the Talamanca between Costa Rica and Panama, and the Alto Bayano region in Panama.

“Being a young solar energy technician has been one of the most incredible experiences. I had never imagined that one day, I would become a solar technician myself: learning how to install the systems, how to measure the rise of the sun [...] Wow, you’re just amazed by the work that is being done!”

— Iris Leck, Indigenous Solar Technician, Talamanca, Costa Rica

HF Partnership

The Honnold Foundation is partnering with Love for Life to expand their Solar Energy Program by providing solar home systems to 20 Indigenous families. The collaboration follows an integrated approach tailored to diverse cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic contexts. It also builds local solar energy infrastructure and capacities from organizational, community, to end-user levels that enables the expansion of the solar program to support Indigenous territories of Costa Rica and Panama. The work is carried out together with local Indigenous partners to ensure widespread adoption and promote network scalability.