Rio Gigante Costa Rica

350 hectares of carbon negative land with over 350 hectares of protected forests

We are Located in a land of the healthy and joyful centenarians of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, it is one of the longevity prone Blue Zones of the world. In one of the most interesting places to live and co-create community. Where the best quality of life is also deep sustainability for all. 25 beautiful bungalows with large edible gardens where you can already experience the better life.

It’s just amazing. We are creating a new way of living. A truly sustainable way. We have been told that poverty and climate change are the major local challenges. We guess it’s not much different from most other rural regions of the world. But developing a public transportation system based on biogas that is produced locally? Becoming the first rural region which produces all its energy from clean renewable energy sources ? With an area of responsible fisheries where humpback whales are received as special guests? With a thriving organic farming, an advanced local organica food network and direct trade system that employs people out of poverty and also fixes carbon below ground in quantities greater than any other inhabited place in the world? With a geographic information system that feeds itself every five years with data from the biodiversity inventory and which is used to monitor in the most sensitive way possible (the tissue of local natural life) the result of our adaptation to climate change? Well, we will continue to learn and innovate. But certainly this community already feels like an intense place of global hope under construction.

Why and how are we doing this? The carbon-based energy and industrially produced food we consume generate and reinforce globally huge social and environmental unbalances. A truly sustainable model of living requires sustainable production and consumption of renewable energy and food. This model must be pesticides free, waste free, fully water and energy efficient, and regenerative to the soil. It must also be socially sustainable, meaning not only that it prevents the generation of poverty, but that it pulls people out of poverty permanently. When combined with local markets, productive sustainable ecosystems decrease economic risk and increase income for the producers. When produced with renewable energy, water harvesting and soil regeneration, their environmental footprint diminishes even more. When created through a grassroots collective backed by law then it changes everything. We need to transition from the unsustainable to the regenerative. To accomplish this transition, we need proof of possibility. That we can implement it territory by territory throughout the world. Hence we lead the creation of an advanced model of rural sustainable development in Costa Rica. This is a paradigm shifting, long-term initiative. We approach this from a territory-wide level with a five year development plan for the region of the Nicoya Peninsula and also from private level by being the owner and co-creator of Comunidad Rio Gigante, which is a delightful combination of forests and water conservation, agroecological carbon neutral production, self-sustaining cero waste housing and a center for impact leadership. At Rio Gigante we incubate and develop critically needed new social, economic and technological models which have a high impact on sustainable development. Estamos ubicados en la tierra de los saludables y felices centenarios de la Península de Nicoya, en una de las llamadas Zonas Azules del Planeta por propiciar la longevidad de sus habitantes Estamos construyendo una nueva forma de convivir para ayudar a regenerar el mundo. En uno de los lugares más interesantes para vivir en el mundo. Donde la mejor calidad de vida es también sustentabilidad profunda para todos. 25 hermosos búngalos con grandes jardines comestibles. Somos una comunidad solar, orgánica y socialmente sustentable. Somos Comunidad Río Gigante, el lugar en donde un mejor y nuevo mundo está siendo construido.