Cocobolo Wellness Village: Where Pure Food and Water Become Medicine

Panama’s Revolutionary Wellness Community Proves the Simplest Path to Health Starts with What We Consume

In Panama’s rare tropical dry forest, a groundbreaking wellness village is demonstrating a powerful truth: the healthiest thing we can do for our bodies is remarkably simple—eat food grown without chemicals and drink highly purified water straight from the land.

Cocobolo, developed by Canopy Development Company in partnership with the Momentis family office, represents a radical return to the foundations of human wellness. While modern health solutions grow increasingly complex and costly, Cocobolo’s approach is elegantly straightforward: invest innovation and design into humanity’s three foundational needs—food, water, and shelter—and wellness becomes a natural outcome rather than an endless pursuit.

When you remove chemicals from your food, impurities from your water, and design shelters that connect you to nature rather than separate you from it, the body’s innate healing capacity awakens.

The Food-Water-Shelter Foundation

“We’ve complicated health to the point where people have forgotten that our bodies are designed to thrive when given clean inputs and connection to nature,” explains founder Caroline Howell. “Chemical-free food, purified water, and shelter that connects us to the living world aren’t luxuries—they’re the baseline our biology requires. Everything else we do for wellness builds on this foundation.”

At Cocobolo, this philosophy manifests in living systems designed to nourish residents at every level:

Pure, Chemical-Free Nutrition The wellness village produces its own nutrient-dense, organic food through regenerative sintropic agroforestry. Over 37,000 wild food and medicinal trees form the backbone of the community’s food system, supplemented by advanced growing methods including aeroponics and hydroponics—all without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers.

The result is food as nature intended: bursting with bioavailable nutrients, free from toxic residues, and alive with the enzymes and beneficial compounds that industrial agriculture strips away.

Water as It Should Be Cocobolo’s natural water filtration system delivers highly purified water directly from the land—no municipal treatment, no chlorine, no fluoride, no pharmaceutical residues. The water residents drink carries the vitality of the forest itself, naturally mineralized and free from the thousands of contaminants found in conventional water supplies.

Shelter That Heals Every building at Cocobolo embraces biophilic design—architecture that actively promotes wellness through connection to nature. Rather than separating residents from the forest, homes integrate with it, creating living spaces where the boundaries between inside and outside dissolve, where natural light and forest air flow freely, and where every view reinforces the healing power of the natural world.

Reconnecting Health to the Land

The transformation residents experience speaks to the power of this integrated approach. When the body stops processing pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, microplastics, and the cocktail of chemicals present in conventional food and water, it can redirect that energy toward healing, vitality, and longevity. When shelter reconnects you to nature through biophilic design rather than isolating you in sterile boxes, stress dissolves and wellbeing becomes the baseline.

“People arrive at Cocobolo carrying the toxic load of modern life and the disconnection of conventional living,” Howell notes. “Within weeks of eating our food, drinking our water, and living in spaces that breathe with the forest, they report clearer thinking, better sleep, reduced inflammation, and a sense of vitality they’d forgotten was possible. This isn’t alternative medicine—it’s just removing the interference in all three foundational areas—food, water, shelter—so the body can do what it does best.”

Technology in Service of Purity

Cocobolo employs sophisticated technology not to replace nature, but to work with it more effectively. AI-assisted land analysis ensures home sites integrate seamlessly with natural systems, protecting watersheds and forest canopy that keep water sources pristine. The Wallacea Trust biodiversity method provides measurable data on ecological health, ensuring the land that nourishes residents remains vibrant and alive.

Advanced growing systems maximize nutrient density while maintaining absolute purity. Every input is scrutinized, every output monitored. The commitment is total: zero compromise on the quality of what enters residents’ bodies.

The WELL Standard: Measurable Wellness by Design

Cocobolo’s commitment to health extends beyond food and water to encompass every aspect of the built environment. The wellness village has engaged Dr. Jie Zhao, one of the original developers of the International WELL Building Institute’s requirements for the WELL Building Standard—the premier global certification for buildings that advance human health and wellness.

Under Dr. Zhao’s guidance, Cocobolo’s entire master plan and all buildings meet WELL Standard requirements, ensuring that air quality, light, thermal comfort, acoustics, materials, and mind—in addition to water and nourishment—are optimized for human health. This means residents aren’t just consuming pure food and water; they’re breathing purified air, living in spaces free from toxic materials, and experiencing environments scientifically designed to support physical and mental wellbeing.

Biophilic Architecture: Nature as Medicine

All of Cocobolo’s buildings embrace biophilic design principles—architecture that actively connects residents to the natural world. Large windows frame forest views, natural materials echo the surrounding landscape, and indoor-outdoor spaces blur the boundaries between shelter and nature. Studies show that biophilic environments reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure, improve cognitive function, and accelerate healing.

“We’re not building homes that separate people from nature—we’re creating shelter that deepens the connection,” Howell explains. “Every sightline to the forest canopy, every natural material choice, every space designed for cross-ventilation carrying forest air—these aren’t aesthetic choices. They’re wellness interventions.”

Innovation Applied to What Matters Most

Cocobolo represents a fundamental reframing of where innovation belongs. Rather than applying technology to convenience or entertainment, the wellness village invests innovation and design into humanity’s three foundational needs: food, water, and shelter.

• Food innovation: Sintropic agroforestry, aeroponics, and hydroponics that maximize nutrient density without chemicals
• Water innovation: Natural filtration systems delivering pharmaceutical-grade purity straight from the land
• Shelter innovation: WELL-certified, biophilic architecture that promotes wellness through connection to nature

“The WELL Standard provides rigorous, evidence-based criteria for how the built environment impacts human health,” notes Howell. “By engaging one of its original architects and committing to biophilic design throughout, we’re ensuring that Cocobolo doesn’t just talk about wellness—we’ve engineered it into every structure, every material choice, every design element. When you invest innovation into food, water, and shelter—the foundations of human existence—you create conditions where wellness becomes inevitable rather than aspirational.”

A Living Laboratory for Wellness

Located in the planet’s most endangered ecosystem—the tropical dry forest—Cocobolo is proving that human wellness and ecological health are inseparable. The same practices that regenerate the forest regenerate human bodies. The same water that flows through wildlife corridors flows through residents’ cells. The same soil that nourishes ancient trees produces the food on residents’ tables.

With over 90% of tropical dry forests lost globally, Cocobolo sits within a planned biological corridor between two nature reserves, helping restore habitat for endangered species while simultaneously restoring human health through the most ancient prescription known: clean food and pure water.

The Wellness Revolution Starts with Basics

In an era of biohacking, supplements, and complex health protocols, Cocobolo’s message is refreshingly direct: before seeking exotic solutions, ensure you’ve mastered the basics. Chemical-free food, highly purified water, and biophilic shelter that connects you to nature aren’t the complete picture of health, but they are the essential foundation upon which all other wellness practices are built.

“We’re not anti-technology or anti-progress,” Howell emphasizes. “We’re pro-wisdom. We use innovation to optimize humanity’s three foundational needs—food, water, and shelter. The most sophisticated thing we can do is invest design and technology into these fundamentals that have sustained human health for millennia, creating conditions where the simplest things—pure food, clean water, shelter connected to nature—are not just available but exceptional.”

For the entrepreneurs, creatives, and health-conscious individuals choosing Cocobolo as home, the promise is straightforward: live in a place where the most important decisions affecting your health—what goes into your body and how your shelter relates to the natural world—are already optimized. Where the water flowing from your tap is as pure as mountain springs. Where the food on your plate is medicine, not just sustenance. Where your home deepens rather than severs your connection to the living world.

Creating the Future of Wellness

Cocobolo wellness village demonstrates that the path forward isn’t more complex—it’s more intentional. By investing innovation into the three foundations of human existence—food, water, and shelter—rather than chasing endless supplements and treatments, true wellness becomes accessible and sustainable. As founders Caroline Howell and Omani Carson (through Momentis family office) continue developing this model, they’re proving that real estate can be reimagined as wellness infrastructure, where the built environment actively contributes to resident health through regenerative food systems, purified water, and biophilic architecture.

“We’re creating a world where wellness isn’t something you pursue—it’s something you inhabit,” Howell concludes. “Where every glass of water, every meal, and every moment in your home moves you toward greater vitality. When you get food, water, and shelter right—when you invest real innovation into these foundations—everything else becomes easier. That’s the power of prioritizing what truly matters. That’s the promise of Cocobolo.”

About Cocobolo Wellness Village Part of Canopy Development Company’s Keystone Development model, Cocobolo is a wellness-focused community in Panama that invests innovation and design into humanity’s three foundational needs: food, water, and shelter. Through chemical-free nutrition systems, naturally purified water, and WELL-certified biophilic architecture, Cocobolo creates conditions where wellness is inevitable. Working with Dr. Jie Zhao, one of the original developers of the WELL Building Standard, all buildings and the master plan meet WELL certification requirements. Through partnership with Momentis family office, the village demonstrates that when you optimize the foundations of human existence, extraordinary health becomes accessible to all residents.