Cooperatives for Women Shea Producers

With financial support from Quebec’s Ministère des Relations Internationales (MRI), we launched a new, environmentally friendly social economy project in Burkina Faso in 2010. While shea production by women’s cooperatives has risen dramatically in recent years, such production requires a relatively high consumption of firewood and water and produces plant debris bi-products, and so has presented new environmental challenges. In low concentrations, the plant residues are harmless, but as production increases, women’s cooperatives are faced with a new environmental management problem. Pressure exerted on natural resources (water and wood) may also become critical in the Sahelian environment. Given that most of these new social businesses project growth in their production to respond to rising demands, medium- and long-term measures must be taken to ensure sustainability of this socio-economic development by perfecting more ecological production methods.

We are currently taking up this challenge in partnership with a major social business, the UGPPK, a cooperative union that brings together more than 3,000 women shea producers in Burkina Faso. The goal is to set up a “green production” facility using “carbon neutral” technology. The project’s major components are: proper management of natural resources, composting plant debris, grey water recycling, and increased use of renewable energies such as biogas and solar energy. Training producers and optimizing the production chain are also part of the initiative and aim to reduce intensive labor while increasing productivity and energy efficiency.