The Kábata Könana Indigenous Women's Association of Talamanca Cabécar, Costa Rica, was announced on July 15 as the winner of the 12th Equator Prize, awarded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its partners. The prestigious award recognizes local and indigenous communities around the world that showcase innovative local solutions to address biodiversity loss and climate change, and achieve their local development goals even during a pandemic.
In 2016, 156 women founded the Kábata Könana Indigenous Women's Association as a space for economic, social and environmental development with cultural relevance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the women put their organizational skills at the service of the territories that make up the Bribri Cabécar Indigenous Network (RIBCA), in the southern Caribbean of Costa Rica and created the Estanco Indígena de Trueque Virtual Productivo, an initiative that operates under the indigenous cultural principles of solidarity, exchange, collectivity and dialogue.
More than 200 families in more than 15 communities actively participate in the Estanco. The system is a network of links with the communities through "Knowledge Weavers". Via Whatsapp, the Weavers communicate from each community to Kábata Könana's headquarters which products are available and coordinate their collection. The women have led for months days of distribution of food grown according to the Cabécar sustainable method, and ensured the nutrition of the entire territory.
The project now includes agricultural and handicraft fairs. The ancestral knowledge applied by the women of the Association has allowed them to select diverse and native seeds that are better adapted to rainfall and drought patterns affected by climate change. Their efforts have also revitalized ancestral knowledge through dialogues with the Knowledge Masters of their people. In this way, they are leading a forest revolution that combines ancestral knowledge with technology for their community's resilience to pandemic and climate change.
The Estanco Indígena de Trueque Virtual Productivo is a joint effort of the Asociación de Mujeres Kábata Könana and the Asociación de Desarrollo Integral del Territorio Indígena Talamanca Cabécar (Aditica), together with the Red Indígena Bribri y Cabécar (RIBCA). The project is being developed in partnership with the Love for Life organization and the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
About the Equator Prize
The Equator Prize, organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme, is awarded every two years to recognize outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. As sustainable community initiatives take root in the tropics, they are laying the groundwork for a global movement of local successes that together contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As local and indigenous groups in the tropics demonstrate and exemplify sustainable development, the Equator Prize highlights their efforts by celebrating them on an international stage.
Winners were selected from a pool of more than 600 nominations from 126 countries by an independent Technical Advisory Committee of internationally renowned experts. Selection was based on community-based approaches that provide a blueprint for replicating and scaling solutions to address our biodiversity crisis.
The Equator Prize winners demonstrate the benefits of placing indigenous and local communities' knowledge and practices of nature-based solutions at the center of local development. At a time when we are facing an unprecedented planetary crisis, it is essential to showcase actions that restore our sustainable food systems, mitigate climate change and protect nature, all while contributing to ecological recovery from the pandemic.
Equator Prize winners will receive US$10,000 and the opportunity to participate in a series of special virtual events associated with the United Nations General Assembly and the Nature Center for Life later this year. They will join a network of 255 communities from more than 80 countries that have received the Equator Prize since its inception in 2002. The Equator Prize 2021 award ceremony will take place virtually on October 4.
Header photo credits: Ivania Alvarado
