Elsa López, 66, Bribri indigenous farmer walking in her field: an agroforestry ancestral system composed of cocoa trees, palms, timber-yield, fruit, and medicinal trees. Pigs and horses graze here, too, in the cool shadow of the trees. Agroforestry is an agricultural system developed also by Indigenous peoples, that combines trees with shrubs, crops, and livestock in a resilient system that produces food (and fuel, fiber, and medicines), supports biodiversity, builds soil horizons and water tables, and sequesters 45 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere globally, a figure that grows by 0.75 gigatons every year. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay

A cocoa fruit grows under the shadow of timber-yield trees as Cedar and Laurel and fruit trees into Elsa López field. Bribri women like López are the dominant cocoa producers in the region. Eighty percent of the cocoa producers in Talamanca are women and owners of their lands. This is characteristic of the matrilineal society, where lands are owned by women that are the ones that hand down culture and language. Being the owner of the lands gives Bribri women tools to organize themselves and be the protagonists. Nevertheless, systemic societal problems like chauvinist violence exist in some parts of their communities and, there are a few cases of domestic violence and alcoholism. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay

Xiomara Cabraca, 52, a Bribri farmer, part of the ACOMUITA association checks a cocoa fruit in her neighbor's field. Here palms, cocoa, timber-yield, and fruit trees are cropped in an agroforestry system. Cabrera and 88 other Bribri women are part of the Association of Indigenous Women of Talamanca (ACOMUITA) to raise the voices and power of women through the social and cultural values of organic cocoa. Approximately 7,000 Bribri live in the Talamanca region, a land of contrasts between ancestral practices and industrial agriculture. Just a few kilometers from the ACOMUITA headquarters in Shiroles, banana and plantain monocultures appear. “If you use pesticides, you only believe in profits,” declares Xiomara. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay

Arlinne Layan, 28, ACOMUITA technical assistant, peels an orange close to the association headquarters. In Costa Rica, agroforestry systems are known as fincas integrales, a seemingly disorderly system that reminds one of the creative mess of a tropical forest. Timber trees such as laurel (Cordia alliodora), cedar (Cedrela odorata) and mountain almond (Dipteryx panamensis) . Under their shade grow fruit trees such as orange (Citrus sinensis), lemon (Citrus limonia), star fruit (Averrhoa carambola), and sapote (Pouteria sapota). These in turn give needed shade to medicinal plants such as comfrey (Symphytum official) and hombre grande (Quassia amara), used to heal respiratory diseases and snake bites, among other. These plantings make them nearly self-sufficient, as they provide food, construction materials and medicines. “Fincas integrales represent and identify us as Bribri Indigenous people that love so much our mother earth,” says Arlinne. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay

Marina López, 57, Bribri leader and co-founder of ACOMUITA next to a cocoa tree in her field. For her, collecting cocoa with her grandmother is one of her precious childhood memories. Bribri culture is transmitted through familial clans. There are 13 in the Talamanca region, each one consecrated to a specific animal. This one is part of the Dokuwak, dedicated to the mountain dove. “My grandmother Adela was the first leader of the Watsi community,” Marina says. “At the beginning of the 1990s, after the Limon earthquake, we realized that we had lost the leadership in the communities: less participation and only men heading political organizations. For that reason, we decided to create a space to give voice to the women.” So she and 36 other Bribri leaders started the Association of Indigenous Women of Talamanca (ACOMUITA) to raise the voices and power of women through the social and cultural values of organic cocoa. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay

Marina López, Bribri leader, cooks in her kitchen the typical Bribri meal named Guacho: rice boiled with coriander, meat, chili, basil, onion and eaten with yucca. She lives in a wooden house with her father, Samuel, near her daughters and 13 nieces and nephews, in the lands where her ancestors founded the community of Watsi. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay

Kids playing at the river edge, close to banana monoculture located a few kilometers from the ACOMUITA headquarters, located in Shiroles. Approximately 7,000 Bribri live in the Talamanca region, a land of contrasts between ancestral practices and industrial agriculture. Monocultures mean pesticide usage, and Costa Rica has one of the heaviest users of these agrichemicals in the world, applying on average more than 25 kilograms per hectare of cultivated land, or about 10 pounds per acre, according to the Pesticide Action Network. Pesticide use is particularly high on important export crops like banana, pineapple, melon, and coffee. Many of the chemicals in use are highly hazardous in terms of acute toxicity, chronic health risk, and/or environmental contamination. Indigenous Bribri agroecology fields represents an act of resistance to the spreading of monoculture struggling for the conservation of ancestral participative dynamics. The Bribri people’s cosmology brings nature conservation to the forefront. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay

Maruja Mallorga, 53, a Bribri farmer and part of ACOMUITA, displays chocolate products of the association. The headquarters of the association is decorated with colorful murals representing Indigenous women and cocoa fruits. Here they gather together to organize activities to promote women's participation in society and entrepreneurship through chocolate production. As with all their activities, everything must be done respecting Iriria, as they call mother nature in their cosmovision. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay