Due to funding uncertainties, we had to postpone the date of the General Assembly of the Linko Family Land Cooperative from June to the end of July. During this period, Crédit Rural de Guinée visited each of the 290 land-owning families in their respective villages to open bank accounts into which arboRise will pay the first ‘carbon credits’. Unfortunately, the opening of these accounts has raised expectations, and some land-owning families have even gone into debt in anticipation of this payment (without knowing the amount…).
The General Assembly finally took place on 31 July with a high participation, as all the cooperative members were eager to receive their first payment. Their disappointment was as great as their expectations when it had to be explained to them that the payment could not be made immediately after the Assembly, as planned, due to funding delays beyond our control.
A second critical point further exacerbated the irritation: we had agreed with the Cooperative Administration to transfer to them the responsibilities and budget for organising the Assembly, which was not done due to a lack of communication.
This strong collective emotion was justified and predictable. To avoid it, we could have postponed the Assembly a second time and moved it to October after receiving the funding. But we felt it was more trustworthy to personally face the disappointment of our beneficiaries and explain to them in person the reasons for the delay in payment.
Following these lively exchanges, we were able to resume the presentation and calmly explain to everyone how the income would be distributed. The Cooperative Committee’s proposals were unanimously accepted.
We then settled with the five members of the Administration how the 2026 Assembly would be managed.
