Political struggles by some Bribri activists for the legal recognition of further claims to the land they inhabit and autonomy are ongoing in both countries.

[7][8][9] The Bribri are indigenous to the Talamanca region, living in the mountains and Caribbean coastal areas of Costa Rica and Northern Panama.

[10] Their economy centers on the growth of cacao, bananas, and plantains to sell along with the consumption of beans, rice, corn, and a variety of other produce.

Although the group has the lowest income per capita in Costa Rica, they are able to fulfill their basic needs by growing their food, finding medicine, and collecting housing materials in the forest.

The earliest written accounts of their people come from Spanish colonial officials and Franciscan missionaries in the early 17th century, who referred to the Bribri and the neighboring Cábecar as the "Talamanca."

[11] Geographic isolation kept Spanish settlers, commerce, and agricultural practices out of the Talamanca region during the colonial period, as did resistance by Indigenous groups across the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

Armed resistance by Indigenous groups in the Talamanca region in the 17th and 18th centuries destroyed Franciscan missions and halted the extension of Spanish power.

[12][11] While able to maintain their political power and cultural practices, the Bribri suffered from depopulation in the colonial period from Old World diseases as well as conflict with the Spanish.

Saldaña sought to resist the expansion of United Fruit land claims in his territory, but in 1910 died from poisoning, as did his nephew and successor 8 days later.

[13] The United Fruit Company was able to use the legal system to their advantage to force the Bribri off the most fertile lands in the Talamanca Valley.

The company could then declare the local inhabitants to be squatters, and by providing minimal financial compensation, tricking people into signing away their legal rights to the land, or having workers clear the forests and disrupt settlements by force, were able to displace the Bribri from their old heartland.

However, the extension of their system of bartering to plantation workers and other banana farmers, as well as the sale of their excess produce, partially integrated their farming into a broader economy.

[13] United Fruit's operations in the Talamanca region faced plant diseases which ravaged their banana crops and flooding which damaged the infrastructure they built.

While some contemporary studies suggest that United Fruit policy, like monocrop plantations frequented by workers traveling from infected farms which rapidly spread disease,[16] and deforestation which removed barriers to the flow of rainwater into the Sixaola River and intensified flooding, were to blame, Bribri shamans at the time took credit for the devastation these forces wreaked on United Fruit's operations.

However, some Bribri people outside of the Talamanca region live in areas which have been more accessible and have a higher degree of economic integration with the rest of Costa Rica.

However, the passage of Law Number 72 by the National Assembly of Panama in 2008 provided a pathway to grant legal title to collective landholdings for Indigenous groups like the Bribri without comarcas.

Without legal protection, some Bribri activists, including King Joaquín González, fear they may be displaced or assimilated by neighboring Indigenous groups or settlers, or that the forests necessary for their subsistence economy may be stripped away by logging operations.

[20] The Bribri people live in the mountains and islands of southern Costa Rica and northern Panama both on reservations and non-protected areas.

Cacao, as in most of the indigenous groups in southern Costa Rica and northern Panama, has a special significance in Bribri culture.

In their tradition illnesses can come from evil spirits that come in from the ocean in the west, they can also be caused by the person's immoral behavior, or by witchcraft from envious neighbors.

In March 2010, Surf For Life teams successfully restored the core structure and wooden planks of a suspension bridge up in the mountains.

Now the families living on the other side of the river can safely use the bridge again for everyday access to necessities like food and water supplies, school and medical services.

Tropical Adventures welcomes volunteers and provides opportunities including: teaching English, recycling and environmental education, medicinal plant project, organic farming, wildlife rehabilitation, chocolate factory, public relations and marketing, retirement home assistance, painting, building and general maintenance, elementary school projects, and trail maintenance.

Under the direction of the founder, Dr. Peter S. Aborn DDS, groups of professional and student volunteers treat patients in week-long visits to the reserve twice a year.