separated by miles of ocean and a 2-hour drive, or a 50-mile hike, through the jungle, guna yala and kalu yala are two of panama’s most sustainable communities.

guna yala, part of the san blas islands in the caribbean, and kalu yala, a commune in the interior jungle, differ drastically in not only their locations, but also in contrasting heritages, culture, and history. what the two do share in common are beliefs and practices that revere the environment.

the guna people, one of the country’s eight main indigenous groups live on the guna yala islands as an independent province off the coast of northeast panama. more than 360 small islands make up the guna archipelago, but only about 50 are actually inhabited and many of which welcome tourists.

the stark contrast between mainland panama and guna yala is apparent even before setting foot on the islands. the water, astonishingly clear and filled with marine life, combined with white sands and palm trees make the perfect vacation spot. what is not immediately apparent, however, is the deeply rooted culture and traditions of the guna people who consider the islands sacred.  

according to aresio valiente lópez, a guna environmental lawyer and professor fighting for indigenous rights, one distinguishing characteristic of guna yala is their right of self-government as an autonomous province. 

a major component of the guna culture is the unique relationship with their environment, which can be seen through much of the artworks and traditional clothing made by guna people.

“most of the native american communities in the americas are very, very close to the land and to the mountains and to the sea and to the environment in general. the kuna people are not far from that,” said diwigdi “diwi” valiente, a 28-year-old guna environmental activist and entrepreneur.

while some aspects of guna cultural beliefs regarding the environment may align with the western concept of sustainability, they are not the same given their contrasting origins, usages, and connection to their respective cultures.

“there is supposed to be one prophet – similar to jesus – that taught us how to behave like humans,” valiente said, “we have this religion and way of thinking where we not only have the mother earth, but also the (father) sun.”

delfino davies, museum guide on the guna yala city island of carti sugtupu, explained that the dual aspect of mother and father is one of the most central aspects of guna religion. couplings are present everywhere in guna life and culture; all places and objects are assigned either female or male.

davies describes this coupling pattern that shows up distinctly in molas, the guna’s traditional artwork sewed into a square of cloth, later made into clothing for guna women. molas typically have a geometric element to them and reflect designs from guna legends and culture.

the guna’s distinctive cultural beliefs are closely connected to their beliefs about climate change, or in some cases, lack thereof.

valiente explains that many guna do not have opinions about climate change, simply because they don’t have sufficient access to information on the topic. many people in guna yala also don’t consider issues caused by climate change to be anything more than fluctuations in the weather, though they are seasonal witnesses to the increasing flooding linked to sea level rise as glaciers melt in polar regions.

“here, in the islands: there are months when the islands get completely flooded. you have water up to your ankles. imagine living for a month like that. there (are) people that still believe that’s because of nature itself,” valiente said.

abelardo “tito” nuñez davies, 40, who resides on small pelican island island with his mother and nephews, notes matter-of-factly that his family’s guna island is shrinking. the house, once in the center of the place, now flanks the sea. “what can i say? we’re here because of the grace of god.”

nuñez also explains that although he and his family have had to temporarily relocate to nearby islands during big storms, they haven’t even thought about permanently moving.

valiente sees climate change through a different lens as his people are disproportionately affected by it. “it’s super frustrating. it’s even worse because you try to explain (to) people climate change and they don’t understand it because they are not causing it,” he said.

“panama doesn’t produce anything; we are a country of service. a country that did not contribute to climate change at all.”

panama, as a developing country, does not hold much historical responsibility for the human-induced climate change present on the planet today given the country’s almost nonexistent role in industrialization. panama is slowly becoming more developed but is still largely a country of service, with tourism as one of its biggest industries.

the tourism industry in guna yala has boomed so much in recent years to the point where it now contributes 80% of their income. this large percentage begs the question of how sustainable tourism can be in the long run.

developing tourism options based on the mainland and seeking new directions for the economy are critical, said lópez, the guna environmental lawyer. he explains that the guna congress recently created a mixed enterprise in which people can buy shares for the first time. “before, all the enterprises that the congress had were private, but now they created a transportation company that’s 60% owned by the institution and it’s 40% available… for sale for everyone.” now the island residents will receive benefits from profits of all the boat traffic to the islands, he noted.

however, many guna hold strong ties to their beliefs and are not easily subjected to change from outside influence.

“a lot of people tend to go and sort of pass judgment on them like ‘oh their towns are so dirty and stuff,’” says panamanian architect ricardo arosemena. “but my response to that is: they could keep living exactly like that for a million years and they wouldn’t destroy anything and the way that we live — maybe you don’t see any garbage but we just destroy everything.”

“i mean, we have a culture that survived colonization from the spaniards. we are much more than the caribbean. and that’s something that we have not been able to explore and take advantage of as much as we could,” valiente said.

valiente is different from many other guna. he works in mainland panama with a primary focus in the sustainability industry and he also studied hospitality management and international business tourism at the césar ritz college in switzerland.

currently, valiente works with bodhi hostels, a business whose mission is to “inspire and encourage sustainable ways of living and travel.” valiente and his business partner, allan lim, recently opened up a new hostel location in kalu yala, a growing eco-city in the panamanian jungle.

keeping kalu yala’s mission in mind, lim and valiente incorporate sustainable practices into the creation and maintenance of their new hostel. in addition to using solar energy, “we try to apply all the cleaning practices that are organic: we use vinegar and water to clean,” lim said. the partnership also hires only local panamanians to work in their hostels.

in the words of the town’s ceo and creator, jimmy stice, kalu yala was founded with the intention to “build a new town that proves that civilization can live in a socially and environmentally responsible way.”

kalu yala’s mission is similar to the cultural beliefs of the guna people, in that both are environmentally conscious and structured around a sense of community. the eco-city’s name actually has guna origins, kalu meaning “house of spirits, and yala meaning “land” or “mountain.”

although kalu yala is very modern and the guna culture has been present for centuries, valiente is a bridge between these two communities, being the first guna person to work at kalu yala, but hopefully not the last.

just like in the guna islands, there are clear signs of tourism booming in kalu yala. in addition to the new bodhi hostel, there also are plans to build permanent residences in the eco-city.

“we’ll start introducing the small houses which will allow for people who want to sleep on a real mattress so $150 nights is also inclusive, just like $13 a night is inclusive,” stice said.

in addition to the small houses, kalu yala plans to build larger charleston-style homes and attract permanent residents as well.

“so i think we’ll be back up to 200 people by the end of next year,” with interns and staff, stice said. with guests and hotel tourists, he anticipates a community of about 300. “and then we’ll actually introduce home sales in 2020 or 2021, and we’ll start adding maybe 50 full-time residents a year based on that.”

with all this new construction and development in kalu yala, it will be interesting to see how the community can still incorporate their sustainability values into these plans, and what they will do to potentially offset their emissions.

fifty miles over four days, from the jungle to the caribbean sea. seven hikers left kalu yala, a sustainable eco-town in the making located in the panamanian jungle, and began their trek to the caribbean coast. these hikers soon found out that, at some points, this untested trail did not even exist.

bushwhacking through the jungle was never on the agenda for the seven hikers, interns and directors developing sustainability projects at this experimental community. but they had to improvise to reach their destination safely – or at all.

kalu yala intern carter angel, one of the explorers on the trip, didn’t even know much about hiking. “i think it was the hardest thing i’ve ever done in my entire life and it was as rewarding as it was challenging,” said angel, 31, a kalu yala resident from virginia. the challenges they faced ranged from language barriers and physical injury to a treacherous climb through the mountains that took them in a circle – back to their starting point a day later.

the kalu yala hikers were accompanied by local panamanian guides, “two farmers that knew their way but didn’t know the trails,” angel said. at some points the hikers saw that they were going off-trail but communicating the ideas in spanish to the guides, who were looking for shortcuts with well-trained eyes, was difficult.

nevertheless, the guides proved essential to the group’s survival. “we walked by a wasp nest and (the guide) just took his hand and plugged up the hole so they couldn’t get out,” angel said. the locals’ knowledge of the area and the environment allowed them to “hear and see things that anybody else wouldn’t be able to hear or see,” she said.

marie stringer, co-owner of tres brazos outfitters – an outdoor adventure recreation business at kalu yala – helped plan this trip, and described the trail as the “supreme jungle” meant for adventurous tourists who want to explore the way to the ocean rather than fly by it in a 1.5-hour truck ride. she tracked the hikers as they took this trip and saw that they were walking in the wrong direction at points. but angel and her companions had to circle back, and as a result, fell far behind schedule. “we were in such a time crunch that there were points where we were literally running,” angel said. they had to make it in four days – or their supplies would run out.

in the midst of this adventure-gone-wrong, the travel team diminished from seven to four. “jess, who did the filming got injured, and then jimmy’s shoes fell apart,” angel said. another hiker, bailey, also had to return to kalu yala. “luckily though, it was kind of a blessing in disguise because they gave us their food and some of their clothes,” angel said. carter continued on this trek with kalu yala staffers tara mclaughlin, sasha papich, and wes stiner.

these risks did make this experience unforgettable for the hikers, but so did the rewards. “there’s some really beautiful points on the trail and i think the four of us really really bonded,” angel said, and then she went on explaining how they saw bioluminescent plankton during a boat ride.

although the trip did not go as planned, this is what happens when the trail is untested, “they’ll be doing it again next semester,” said stringer, from tres brazos outfitters.  

hiking is a popular sport at kalu yala, a sustainable community in the making in the panamanian jungle, where interns develop their own ecological projects for agriculture, living designs, construction, and water resources. a group of these kalu yala residents went on a 50-mile hiking adventure and ended up walking in circles on uncharted trails, reemphasizing the importance of navigation.

since the majority of the students at kalu yala are not local, they are not experts in their knowledge of the area. with new technology, however, navigation can be a tool the hiker carries to the trail. the alltrails application is a technological innovation for navigation that, through an ongoing ecological tourism project, is being adapted to the trails around kalu yala.

app guides hikers, even offline

marie stringer, co-owner of tres brazos outfitters, has been working on this project for months. “it turns your cell phone into an offline gps tracker that tracks your points as you hike outside of cell signal. you can download the maps offline and then utilize your point on the map without wi-fi (or cellular service) to see the topography ahead,” said stringer, as she explained the purpose of alltrails.

the staff at kalu yala have been mapping the trails around the area to add to the app, founded by a group of bay area investors in 2010. as a result, “instead of requiring that a staff member or student know the trail, it allows people to go do this on their own,” stringer said. she is referring to the trails meant for beginners, indicated in the app as the less challenging ones — unlike the grueling 50-mile trail to the caribbean that required guides.  

discovering kalu yala via the app

alltrails will benefit the hiker as an individual and kalu yala as a community. stringer describes it as a social sharing app. “we’ve had people just show up on our property because of the trails that we mapped for our internal use,” she recalls. seeing as there aren’t many trails mapped around the area, people began to see kalu yala as a good place to stop for a break or even for the night.

more visitors at kalu yala could even help in the community’s mission. jimmy stice, founder and ceo of kalu yala, describes how this institution would achieve its most basic goal by spreading “environmental and social values to people who want to come here.

“what i’d really like, though, is to create an economy here where you don’t have to just come here to be a student or come here to camp for the weekend — you can apply for a job here like any real city.”

as kalu yala scales up to a larger community, people who would initially wander in using alltrails could learn more and spread the word about sustainable living. this expansion would lead to more guests and eventually, employees to help upkeep the sustainable ecological programs.

helping people experience nature

this app also solves the issue of accessibility. “what alltrails does is it allows hiking like that to be accessible to people that don’t have that sort of very specialized gear, because the gear that you need is your cell phone,” stringer said. the fact that the app is free also allows everyone to be able to access an outdoor adventure.

carter angel, a hiker and a recent graduate of the internships at kalu yala, recalls a time when she took a hike a saw a rare red frog. the app, by making hiking easier to access, allows more people to experience nature, in nature. “there’s things along that whole trail that you would never see anywhere else because you’re literally just, you’re there,” angel said.

however, angel believes that the paths she worked on are in an early developmental phase, and so she did not yet post many of the trails she mapped.

stringer reemphasizes this current challenge: “i have this amazing vision of it, but it requires actually a lot of time and energy on my part to make it what i want it to be.” she is planning to continue working on this project next semester.

a tool for education

the vision those at kalu yala have for alltrails extends beyond the mapping of a few hiking trails, however.

farm tours, usually given by the farm manager to kalu yala visitors, are being adapted into self-guided tours with alltrails, from the chicken coops to the red cranberry hibiscus bushes.

“i’ll go through and do the farm tour and add every plant that i know,” stringer said. “when people come here they can grab the brochure and then download alltrails, upload our farm tour and literally walk around the farm clicking on the pictures … getting an explanation of what that is, how it builds a soil and what sort of nutrients it needs.”

zoe st. john, the agriculture director at kalu yala, said the self-guided tours will give her more time to work on farm projects. “that means that i get roughly an extra, anywhere from an hour to six hours each week, just to work on the farm,” st. john said. “i am so thrilled.”

the alltrails app can be loaded with unlimited information. stringer explains that the project is not yet complete because she is still collecting “culinary information or any sort of medicinal information,” among other facts about the agriculture at kalu yala to include in the app before posting it.  

a living project

using the mapped trails and, in order to map others, angel created a ‘hiking challenge’ for the staff and students at kalu yala. she wanted to build something that won’t “just get eaten by the jungle,” meaning that it would last for years and get passed on, unlike some sustainability projects that require constant maintenance. 

angel created a point system showing scale of difficulty to encourage people to head out for that first hiking high. “if you think you’re going on a hike and your machete-ing the whole time, like, that’s not a hike — that’s a scramble. so i wanted it to be something that is fun and safe and enjoyable,” angel said.

• since our land is on the highest point in the oak creek valley with never-ending wind, we want to harness wind and solar energy to run the farm and then sell the leftover energy back to the grid.
• we need a new well to support our plans and in the process of digging the well, we’d also like to drill deeper to see if geothermal energy would be possible and if so, that leftover energy would also be sold back to the grid.
• we would then create a self-sustaining greenhouse and eventually an all-organic farm that would provide food for the community, education on self-sustainment and alternative energy and most importantly jobs.
• we’re partnering with a company that creates bricks out of compressed earth, much like the sod houses of our ancestors. with the growing hmong community in lincoln, we would make homes for these underserved people and others who would also be trained in organic farming and self-sustainment.
• we’re already creating a hardy strain of fir and cedar trees to replace scotch pine, which create windbreaks all over nebraska. unfortunately those trees are dying of pine wilt and will soon need to be replaced. this profit center for our operation is already in progress.
• my sister alice, who is the chief gardener for the city of lincoln, has applied for a matching fund through the nebraska season extension project to build a green house, but progress on that and on all of our plans are in fits and spurts because of lack of funding.
• with our off the grid! reed’s green growers plan we will:
-create jobs
-educate america about self-sustainment, alternative energy and organic farming
-provide a space for local small businesses as well as an outlet for artists to perform and create their work in our largest barn in the county
-hold an alternative farmers’ market on sundays to supplement the one held on saturday in the community.
if we can make this work in the harsh climate of nebraska, we can make it work anywhere.

who is the customer? affordable housing in the price points of this consideration.the north american real estate market has been in a down turn for over two years. the only price points that remain selling by all re statistics shows the 25k to 125k is the largest share of the market. we have marketed this concept to reia association here in central florida. these prototypes can in some instances be the perfect match for empty lots, tear downs and burnouts as they are low enough price points that make them less expensive than a reo or short sale purchase to rehab and either sell or hold and rent out. kits for export to all emerging markets fob port of miami. two complete homes with solar in five containers. 

what is the customer pain we are solving? it stands to reason the home with little to no electric bill will sell faster or rent and stay rented longer than the same priced home in same market without these extras. low cost solar housing is less expensive to build and less expensive to live in with the co-generation systems making them. homes with little to no electric bill. of the top three concerns of all major metropolitan areas in north america. one of these is always not enough low cost housing. this is a common sense approach to an otherwise overwhelming problem.

what is the target market? low income, community redevelopment, emerging markets, disaster relief (haiti & chile), export kits and investor real estate market (for build hold and rent outs). the export of easy to assemble kits could be a windfall for the manufacture of these units by emerging market governments.

how can we do it and at what price? first these are two words normally not found in the same sentence “low cost and “anything solar” but with the industry pricing falling dramatically in the last two years it is possible to mix alternative energy methods with built-in modular in the original construction rather that retro-fitting. it just makes sense to go this direction. have non-solar low cost modular platform already built on slabs like conventional home in dade county miami, fl and in the orlando, fl area these modular exceeded the staunchest hurricane codes in usa.