Manos Cambiadas - Restoring reciprocity on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.
Over the past 6 years Los Higuerones has been actively engaged in fulfilling our mission of ‘Promoting better economic, social, cultural and environmental alternatives for the OSA community’. As a community hub we invite people to come together and connect in ways that celebrate equity, biodiversity, and culture in the Osa. We have also become a project incubator that initiates and nurtures projects that support solidarity and strengthen our community’s social fabric. Besides our community projects, the spaces of Los Higuerones itself are living examples of how we can live more harmoniously within our natural environment. The non-built areas of the property have grown from bare patches of dirt to abundant permaculture inspired gardens for food, fertility, and fancy. In addition…The built space has been curated into a multi-use “campus” with spaces used for workshops, classes, a weekly market and other gatherings as well as accommodations for people focused on for our Osa community
Amigos of Costa Rica is a US nonprofit organization that invites people to invest in communities around Costa Rica by connecting their values and resources with vetted nonprofit solutions. The organization serves as a fiscal sponsor for over 100 Costa Rican nonprofit organizations and ensures responsible fund management through annual reporting. We believe in creating the best possible future for Costa Rica.
Project story
Can we use moments of urgency and breakdown as portals for re-imagining and repairing our social fabric and regenerate our region?
This was the question that drew a small but diverse group of people on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica together in May of 2020. During a time when the world seemed to stop, fear appeared to dominate and many people were seeking a route back to “normal”, we saw the truth of the statement: “We are the ones we have been waiting for”. Out of this Knowing began the revival of Manos Cambiadas (“Changing Hands”), a traditional practice of mutual aid, solidarity, and shared labor.
The small group started with inviting neighbors and friends to help a member of the community with harvesting crops, preparing land, or responding to moments of need — not as transactional exchange, but because of trust, reciprocity, and collective responsibility.
Six years forward….Manos Cambiadas has been of essential support to campesino families in our Osa community. Especially, since many of them are getting older and lack the financial capital to hire help. Moreso, it has become very clear to us that this tradition is a cornerstone for healthy relationships and trust among community members.
Bioregional context
The socio-cultural landscape of the Osa Peninsula is market by thriving tourism, conservation and development industries. Over the years, these have been primarily of benefit to wealthy and non-regional individuals and businesses at the expence of the local campesino population. For generations their sovereignty and culture have suffered greatly from these activities and the pace of change that has come with the modern day mindset coming in.
The ecological landscape of the Osa bioregion holds >2.5 % of the Earth’s biodiversity existing in 80% of the area’s territory. The remainder of the land, primarily along the coastline, is subject to degradation, human development and continued exploitation.
Within these dynamics, Manos Cambiadas does the slow and vital work rejuvenating the agricultural practices in our bioregion while fostering a spirit of community, collaboration, and cultural preservation, addressing multiple interconnected challenges:
Local farm families, usually elderly, without the financial capital to hire help for needed projects on their land.
Newly arrived immigrants (ex-patriots) not understanding the historical local culture they are moving into or the potency of their contributions.
Limited access to effective interventions around “alternative” farming practices
Undervalued community labor and mutual aid
Weakened circulation of local goods and services
Social fragmentation and declining reciprocity structures
Institutional interventions still based on horizon 1 frameworks.
It does this by continuing to build the necessary support and infrastructure one small farm or household at a time.
The value of Manos Cambiadas
To enhance community-based mutual aid, promote soil and water regeneration, encourage ancestral knowledge, preserve local culture and traditions and enhance relationships and greater understanding across communities such as:
1. Enhance Soil Health, Reduce Chemical Dependency & Promote Biodiversity through Organic Agriculture: During Manos Cambiadas we involves implementation of form of regenerative practice such as biochar, composting, Micro Mountain Organisms, and more.
2. Promote a regenerative local food system: Supporting the farmers helps to evolve the local food system to prioritizing organic crops and seed resiliency, community well-being, and economic viability.
3. Strengthen community collaboration: Making interdependence, talents and knowledge visible within the community while fostering community ties by executing collaborative tasks during the Manos Cambiadas
5. Increase Food Security and Access to Healthier Produce: Increase access to fresh, nutritious food through sustained local production and local distribution strategies such as the Mercado Verde & CSA boxes.
6. Empower Farmers by valuing and complementing their knowledge and skills: Recognize the knowledge of local farmers, while equipping them with the resources to practice their knowledge and skills complemented with modern day regenerative methods.
The Next Steps: Manos Cambiadas as an economic engine.
As part of ensuring continuation and structuring the Manos Cambiadas we want to connect commitment pools to the program. The concept of commitment pools was developed by the Sarafu Network of Grassroots Economics, and Communities pledge shared labor on land and water — tending ancestral spaces, maintaining catchments, planting native species. Fulfilled commitments are recorded as vouchers, making invisible care visible and redeemable for food, craft, and skilled labor within the community.
The commitment pool wil also show the amount of value that is being exchanged throughout the activities and the program, which is often the invisible work of organizing, hosting, facilitating, caregiving, communicating, and sustaining community infrastructure.
This step enables us to demonstrate how ancestral traditions of mutual aid can be combined with regenerative economic tools to recreate locally rooted, ecologically aligned, and socially resilient economies. Engaging in the living experiment of restoring reciprocity as the foundation for social, economic and ecological infrastructure and rebuilding the social, cultural, ecological, and economic relationships necessary for our communities to thrive together.
By linking Manos Cambiadas with commitment pooling we envision to strengthen a regenerative local economy where:
participation becomes more accessible,
local producers are supported,
mutual aid is strengthened,
cultural traditions are preserved,
ecological regeneration is incentivized,
and communities become more capable of meeting their own needs collectively
For the budget of this project click here
For an example of what this could look like please explore an example of this system in this article of Will Ruddick
For an experience story about Los Higuerones and Manos Cambiadas click here
For an example of the multiple values that flow during Manos Cambiadas and other impacts that the work of Los Higuerones generates click here
Project Timeline
July
- use social media outlets and in-person activities of Higuerones to fundraise for funding round
August
- November: rainy season in Costa Rica…no regularly scheduled Manos cambiadas.
-seed ROLA commmitment pool with MaEarth funding
- develop and formalize our ROLA commitment Pool,
-provide capacitación for participating farmers, volunteers and administrators on benefits and logistics of commitment pools through games developed by Grassroots Economics
-schedule upcoming season of Manos Cambiadas
-reach out to area businesses and volunteer groups to stregnthen program’s volunteer capacity
December - July
-engage in at least 2 Manos Cambiadas per month (# of MC engagements will be determined by amount of money raised and number of participants in the commitment pool).
- use each Manos Cambiadas to account for deposits and withdrawals for the commitment pool.
- intervene with any disparities or anomalies arising from pool accounting.
End of July
-close season of Manos Cambiadas with celebration and review of program’s impact
Project updates
Team
Manos Cambiadas - Restoring reciprocity on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.
Over the past 6 years Los Higuerones has been actively engaged in fulfilling our mission of ‘Promoting better economic, social, cultural and environmental alternatives for the OSA community’. As a community hub we invite people to come together and connect in ways that celebrate equity, biodiversity, and culture in the Osa. We have also become a project incubator that initiates and nurtures projects that support solidarity and strengthen our community’s social fabric. Besides our community projects, the spaces of Los Higuerones itself are living examples of how we can live more harmoniously within our natural environment. The non-built areas of the property have grown from bare patches of dirt to abundant permaculture inspired gardens for food, fertility, and fancy. In addition…The built space has been curated into a multi-use “campus” with spaces used for workshops, classes, a weekly market and other gatherings as well as accommodations for people focused on for our Osa community
Amigos of Costa Rica is a US nonprofit organization that invites people to invest in communities around Costa Rica by connecting their values and resources with vetted nonprofit solutions. The organization serves as a fiscal sponsor for over 100 Costa Rican nonprofit organizations and ensures responsible fund management through annual reporting. We believe in creating the best possible future for Costa Rica.
Project story
Can we use moments of urgency and breakdown as portals for re-imagining and repairing our social fabric and regenerate our region?
This was the question that drew a small but diverse group of people on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica together in May of 2020. During a time when the world seemed to stop, fear appeared to dominate and many people were seeking a route back to “normal”, we saw the truth of the statement: “We are the ones we have been waiting for”. Out of this Knowing began the revival of Manos Cambiadas (“Changing Hands”), a traditional practice of mutual aid, solidarity, and shared labor.
The small group started with inviting neighbors and friends to help a member of the community with harvesting crops, preparing land, or responding to moments of need — not as transactional exchange, but because of trust, reciprocity, and collective responsibility.
Six years forward….Manos Cambiadas has been of essential support to campesino families in our Osa community. Especially, since many of them are getting older and lack the financial capital to hire help. Moreso, it has become very clear to us that this tradition is a cornerstone for healthy relationships and trust among community members.
Bioregional context
The socio-cultural landscape of the Osa Peninsula is market by thriving tourism, conservation and development industries. Over the years, these have been primarily of benefit to wealthy and non-regional individuals and businesses at the expence of the local campesino population. For generations their sovereignty and culture have suffered greatly from these activities and the pace of change that has come with the modern day mindset coming in.
The ecological landscape of the Osa bioregion holds >2.5 % of the Earth’s biodiversity existing in 80% of the area’s territory. The remainder of the land, primarily along the coastline, is subject to degradation, human development and continued exploitation.
Within these dynamics, Manos Cambiadas does the slow and vital work rejuvenating the agricultural practices in our bioregion while fostering a spirit of community, collaboration, and cultural preservation, addressing multiple interconnected challenges:
Local farm families, usually elderly, without the financial capital to hire help for needed projects on their land.
Newly arrived immigrants (ex-patriots) not understanding the historical local culture they are moving into or the potency of their contributions.
Limited access to effective interventions around “alternative” farming practices
Undervalued community labor and mutual aid
Weakened circulation of local goods and services
Social fragmentation and declining reciprocity structures
Institutional interventions still based on horizon 1 frameworks.
It does this by continuing to build the necessary support and infrastructure one small farm or household at a time.
The value of Manos Cambiadas
To enhance community-based mutual aid, promote soil and water regeneration, encourage ancestral knowledge, preserve local culture and traditions and enhance relationships and greater understanding across communities such as:
1. Enhance Soil Health, Reduce Chemical Dependency & Promote Biodiversity through Organic Agriculture: During Manos Cambiadas we involves implementation of form of regenerative practice such as biochar, composting, Micro Mountain Organisms, and more.
2. Promote a regenerative local food system: Supporting the farmers helps to evolve the local food system to prioritizing organic crops and seed resiliency, community well-being, and economic viability.
3. Strengthen community collaboration: Making interdependence, talents and knowledge visible within the community while fostering community ties by executing collaborative tasks during the Manos Cambiadas
5. Increase Food Security and Access to Healthier Produce: Increase access to fresh, nutritious food through sustained local production and local distribution strategies such as the Mercado Verde & CSA boxes.
6. Empower Farmers by valuing and complementing their knowledge and skills: Recognize the knowledge of local farmers, while equipping them with the resources to practice their knowledge and skills complemented with modern day regenerative methods.
The Next Steps: Manos Cambiadas as an economic engine.
As part of ensuring continuation and structuring the Manos Cambiadas we want to connect commitment pools to the program. The concept of commitment pools was developed by the Sarafu Network of Grassroots Economics, and Communities pledge shared labor on land and water — tending ancestral spaces, maintaining catchments, planting native species. Fulfilled commitments are recorded as vouchers, making invisible care visible and redeemable for food, craft, and skilled labor within the community.
The commitment pool wil also show the amount of value that is being exchanged throughout the activities and the program, which is often the invisible work of organizing, hosting, facilitating, caregiving, communicating, and sustaining community infrastructure.
This step enables us to demonstrate how ancestral traditions of mutual aid can be combined with regenerative economic tools to recreate locally rooted, ecologically aligned, and socially resilient economies. Engaging in the living experiment of restoring reciprocity as the foundation for social, economic and ecological infrastructure and rebuilding the social, cultural, ecological, and economic relationships necessary for our communities to thrive together.
By linking Manos Cambiadas with commitment pooling we envision to strengthen a regenerative local economy where:
participation becomes more accessible,
local producers are supported,
mutual aid is strengthened,
cultural traditions are preserved,
ecological regeneration is incentivized,
and communities become more capable of meeting their own needs collectively
For the budget of this project click here
For an example of what this could look like please explore an example of this system in this article of Will Ruddick
For an experience story about Los Higuerones and Manos Cambiadas click here
For an example of the multiple values that flow during Manos Cambiadas and other impacts that the work of Los Higuerones generates click here
Project Timeline
July
- use social media outlets and in-person activities of Higuerones to fundraise for funding round
August
- November: rainy season in Costa Rica…no regularly scheduled Manos cambiadas.
-seed ROLA commmitment pool with MaEarth funding
- develop and formalize our ROLA commitment Pool,
-provide capacitación for participating farmers, volunteers and administrators on benefits and logistics of commitment pools through games developed by Grassroots Economics
-schedule upcoming season of Manos Cambiadas
-reach out to area businesses and volunteer groups to stregnthen program’s volunteer capacity
December - July
-engage in at least 2 Manos Cambiadas per month (# of MC engagements will be determined by amount of money raised and number of participants in the commitment pool).
- use each Manos Cambiadas to account for deposits and withdrawals for the commitment pool.
- intervene with any disparities or anomalies arising from pool accounting.
End of July
-close season of Manos Cambiadas with celebration and review of program’s impact
Project updates
Team
Location
Costa Rica
Round 3
Jul 1-21, 2026
Supporting community-led nature projects around the world.
Matching funds provided by
