Asociación de Nuevos Alquimistas Internacional Asociación (ANAI)

Asociación ANAI is a non-profit ​association dedicated to helping people put into practice community and landscape-level initiatives that integrate nature conservation and the well-being of the people who conserve and sustainably use nature.

Based in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, ANAI’s team is passionate about engaging people, protecting nature, creating sustainable livelihoods and organizations, empowering people and helping others do the same.  We want our grandchildren’s grandchildren to be able to pass on a vibrant, remarkable and sustainable world to their grandchildren.

ANAI’s 40 years of work have been centered around four long term initiatives.

• The coastal lowland initiative
• The Talamanca biodiversity, livelihoods and sustainability initiative
• The aquatic biomonitoring and river conservation program
• Contributions Beyond Talamanca

Some of the outcomes include:

• Creation of the 10,000 hectare (25,000 acre) Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, protecting rainforests, wetlands, estuaries, coastal streams and coral reefs
• Diversification and strengthening of family farms in more than 80 communities across the Talamanca landscape
• Development of community tourism in places of high biodiversity
• The wet tropic’s first permanent aquatic biomonitoring program
• Creation of community and landscape-level organizations dedicated to conservation and sustainable development

Local families have taken innovative steps to

• make their farms organic, Fair Trade, more diverse and more sustainable
• process and market certified organic products
• build community-based eco and cultural tourism enterprises
• address well-being needs like clean water, nutrition, education, jobs, cultural strengthening and access to the benefits of nature
• protect and sustainably manage their natural and agro-biodiversity heritage
• create their own community and regional organizations and governance practices, like APPTA, which has grown into one of the world’s largest organic farmer associations, and CBTC, a consortium of grassroots organizations dedicated to the sustainable management of the Talamanca landscape

In recognition of this work, ANAI, APPTA, CBTC and the Talamanca Initiative were honored with the first Equator Prize, given in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, for “extraordinary accomplishment in reducing poverty in the tropics through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity” and “remarkable success at linking conservation with economic development”. 

ANAI welcomes you to learn more about its work for people and nature.​