In December 2025, we founded the Samana Family Land Cooperative to properly manage the common good that is the new arboRise forests (see our report here), and on 1 February 2026, a new General Assembly was held to elect the cooperative’s governing bodies:
In preparation for the election of the 18 members of the Cooperative Committee, each village had previously elected two representatives, one man and one woman. At the general meeting, we simply used a hat in which we placed 10 ‘Woman’ tickets and 8 ‘Man’ tickets. Each village drew a slip at random, and that is how we ended up with a Cooperative Committee made up mostly of women, all of whom are well known in their villages and therefore visible at the sub-prefecture level.
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In this regard, some circles readily express sympathy for the plight of African women. For our part, we see tangible signs of their influence that contradict this image of weakness. For example, in a village in the sub-district, the women deposed the village chief who was reluctant to have the village join the project! Another example: a woman from the village of Booko heads the hunters’ guild for the entire sub-prefecture, an extremely powerful position that carries significant customary powers. A third indication is that the requirement for a majority of women on the cooperative committee has never been challenged or even debated. To conclude this digression, here is an inspiring read on the subject: L’autre langue des femmes (The Other Language of Women) by Léonora Miano.
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…We then moved on to electing the five members of the administration. The cooperative members from each village first chose their village’s candidate, then the entire room voted by a show of hands for each candidate, and the five with the most votes were elected. We are very pleased with the election of Mr Mamady Kourouma, from the village of Farawanidou, as Director of Administration, and that Ms Mariam Sidibé from Sokourala will represent women within the Cooperative’s Administration.
Each candidate first introduced themselves to the Assembly, then the five members of the administration were democratically elected.
The day after the General Meeting, we organised a training session for the five members of the administration and the 18 members of the Cooperative Committee and their deputies to prepare them for their roles and responsibilities.
- For the Administration, it’s simple: they have to manage the budget and organise the next General Meeting (thus relieving our partner GUIDRE, which had been responsible for this until now).
- For the Cooperative Committee, it is more tricky: they must appoint surveyors to visit and assess each plot of land and then, based on their report, develop a carbon revenue distribution key. Indeed, it is certainly not up to arboRise to define the criteria for distributing this revenue. This choice must be made by those most directly concerned, based on local traditions and customs.
But what criteria should be used to distribute carbon revenue? You can find out here.
