The people
behind the
forest.
Every harvest carries a name. Every name carries a generation of knowledge. These are the stewards of the Abyei agroforest.
Thirty-four women. One forest. A century of knowledge.
The Achai Cooperative is led entirely by women from the Ngok Dinka community. They set the harvest calendar, determine quality standards, and distribute earnings directly to member families. No intermediary. No extraction.
The forest is not a resource. It is a relationship.
Forest stewards walk the agroforest daily — monitoring canopy health, tracking seasonal shifts, and maintaining the hive networks that pollinate the entire ecosystem. Their knowledge is oral, generational, and irreplaceable.
Hands that know the weight of a ripe nut.
Harvesting in the Abyei agroforest is done entirely by hand. No machinery. No shortcuts. Each nut is assessed individually — weight, colour, sound. The harvest window is narrow. The skill required is deep.
A land that has never been farmed. Only tended.
The Abyei Area sits at the border of South Sudan and Sudan — a contested, resilient, ancient landscape. The agroforest here is not planted. It grew. The community's role is to protect what already exists.
Governance by the people who live here.
The cooperative is governed by a council of elders and elected women representatives. Decisions about harvest volumes, pricing, and partnerships are made collectively. The Achai Collection does not set terms — it listens to them.
"The forest employs a community.
The community protects the forest.
This is the only model that works."
— Cooperative Council, Abyei Area
1,200+
Grower families
34
Cooperative members
12,000
Acres stewarded
3rd
Generation of harvesters
Become part
of this story
Partnership with Achai Collection is a relationship with the land, the community, and the long arc of stewardship. Commerce follows relationship.
The journey
Myth · Covenant · Achai · Collection · People · Partner