Coopesilencio is an agricultural cooperative that operates on an estate located in Quepos (Southern Costa Rica). Coopesilencio is the result of the year – long struggle of peasant families and groups.

The community and the cooperative live mainly from the farming of African palm. However, in recent years, they have managed to diversify their economic activities and profit from a food security program that takes organic agriculture, tourism, and a sustainable use of forest resources as its base.

Coopesilencio implemented a voucher system in 2008. This system is supported by an inventory of goods and services offered to the residents of Silencio. The vouchers are named UDIS (solidarity exchange units, translated from the Spanish) and their nominal denomination is equivalent to the Costa Rican Colon (CRC).

Coopesilencio’s implementation and use of an exchange medium such as the vouchers, seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• To increase labor capital and improve Coopesilecio’s financial inflow
• To minimize Coopesilencio’s use of cash and use a safer payment method (UDIS)
• To support the local economy by encouraging the consumption of local goods and guaranteeing that purchasing power remains in the community.

The main procedure to emit UDIS is through the exchange of Colones (CRC). This is done voluntarily by the cooperative’s associates and by tourists, who request it for its increased safety assurance (no vouchers have been stolen) and for the discounts and sales offered to voucher users in Coopesilencio stores (restaurant and store). The vouchers are only exchangeable for products and services offered within the network of local businesses, encouraging more local development in the community of Silencio.