The application process applies to volunteers, learners, and members. Supporters, please go directly to that tab on this page. Thanks!
- Stay informed
Subscribe to our blog (& please do the two-step process, otherwise it doesn’t add you). Events, news, updates and changes as well as articles and thought pieces are shared on our blog. Follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where we try to post more regularly, and join our Facebook Group, where we can have an open dialogue about creating a new way.
- Application form
Application forms and instructions are provided here for volunteers, learners, and members. Every adult must apply separately and if planning to come as a couple, indicate that on the form.
- Apply as a member if you’re interested in volunteering, taking a PDC, and potentially becoming a member.
- Apply as a learner if you’re interested in volunteering and taking a PDC, or only in the PDC.
- Apply as a volunteer if you’re not currently interested in a PDC or membership. Of course, once you’re here you might discover that you want to do more. That’s fine – you can apply later.
Before applying, please also read the relevant tab on this page. Thanks!
- Introductory Video Call
Once we receive your application, we’ll reach out to schedule a time to talk by Skype, Zoom, What’s App or some other VOIP / internet calling system. This will give us a chance to get to know one another just a bit and answer any initial questions.
- Acceptance
If we are in alignment based on the application and call, we’ll let you know by email and send you the agreements.
- Agreements and arrangements
When you decide to come, you sign the agreements, return them to us by email and confirm space availability prior to making travel arrangements. Then you send us a copy of your travel arrangements and payment of your financial contribution.
- Getting here
Once we receive your travel arrangements and payment, we’ll send you directions for getting here. Note: if you arrive in Panama City after 2pm, plan on spending a night there or Antón (the nearest town).
If you aren’t interested in taking a permaculture course or becoming a member currently, apply as a volunteer.
Help us keep up the momentum and take this project to the next level. Your financial and time contribution
will make this happen. It takes a lot of time, dedication, and hard work to maintain the food forest and raised beds, tend the nursery, continue reforestation and slope stabilization efforts, maintain roads, manage water and power, handle marketing and outreach, and hold collaborative educational activities with local educational institutions and the local community. As they say, many hands make light work – plus, we love interacting with positive, like-minded people who want to live more lightly on this planet.
Exchange and expectations:
Accommodation is shared rooms in the Rainbow Bunkhouse. We use a compost toilet system. There’s an outdoor shower and an outdoor kitchen. The bunkhouse deck is covered, and people often gather there to relax. We provide sheets for the beds in the bunkhouse. There are also tents available – or you can bring your own. Unless a group holds a weekly group grocery pool and shares cooking, everyone is responsible for their own food and meals.
Financial contribution to the project of $10 USD per day
Labor contribution to the project of 4 hours per day, 5 days a week (rotate days to cover weekend needs)
Make sure that you’ve read our volunteer information page and our application process page and then fill out the application form.
As mentioned throughout this website,
our project is based on the ethics and principles of Permaculture. Permaculture is a design science for sustainability that’s applicable to all aspects of life. As much as it can be used to design a garden, food forest or ecovillage, it can also be used to design a business, your life, or a new social system. Our Panama Permaculture courses are offered quarterly – generally in February, May, August, and November. The course is a two-week intensive that meets the requirements of a Permaculture Design Certificate.
Remember to read the information on the Panama PDC and apply here.
If you’re interested in volunteering, taking a permaculture course, 
and potentially becoming a member, apply as a member.
Communities need members. Membership starts with a trial period – a mutual evaluation process that’s designed to help us get to know each other and find out if this is a fit. If you’ve read this website and are thinking “this is for me” then please apply as a member. This way we know your intentions and can help with your transition. If you’re still not sure, then by all means come as a volunteer.
Exchange and expectations:
Accommodation is shared rooms in the Rainbow Bunkhouse. We use a compost toilet system. There’s an outdoor shower and an outdoor kitchen. The bunkhouse deck is covered, and people often gather there to relax. We provide sheets for the beds in the bunkhouse. There are also tents available – or you can bring your own. Unless a group holds a weekly group grocery pool and shares cooking, everyone is responsible for their own food and meals.
Financial contribution to the project of $10 USD per day
Labor contribution to the project of 4 hours per day, 5 days a week (rotate days to cover weekend needs)
If after studying these pages, you find that you are seriously interested in being considered as a founding member of this initiative please take your time and fill out the application form in as much detail as possible. We appreciate that it’s a detailed application form and we feel that it’s appropriate to what we’re looking for: being a founder member of a unique Co-working Co-living Eco-entrepreneurial Eco-village is something that is worth thinking through in detail. This is why we ask so many questions as it’s part of the two-way evaluation and mutual agreement process.
Make sure that you’ve read the member information pages before you fill out the application form.
Your financial or in-kind donation helps us keep up the momentum
and take this project to the next level. Not everyone can come to Panama, but you can still help make a difference!
Financial Support
Maybe you can provide funds to support volunteers, a stipend for interns, or a scholarship for Permaculture learners. Or perhaps you want to help us buy seeds, seedlings, tools, or other materials, or help with operational costs.
Please click here to let us know what financial support you are able to provide.
In-kind Support
Possibly you have expertise that you can share with us by helping to handle our 
social media, website, or marketing. Or maybe you have mad permaculture, electrical, homesteading, or other skills and can provide advice when we need it.
Let us know what expertise you can provide.
Do you have stuff you don’t need any longer? Or do you have access to surplus or returned items that might be of use here? Please contact us.