What is a cooperative?

A  cooperative is a business owned and run democratically by its members:

• Voting is dependent upon membership (one person one vote) not the wealth of a shareholder

• Members elect the board who also must be members

• As well as voting on key issues members can also influence board decisions through being part of committees which advise the board on specific issues

Most cooperatives follow the 7 Rochdale principles for cooperatives which were established in 1844. These can be summarised as:

1. Voluntary and open membership

   • being open to anyone willing to accept the responsibilities of membership

2. Democratic member control

   • each member having one vote regardless of stake

3. Economic participation by members

   • members democratically control the capital and business interests of the cooperative

4. Autonomy and independence

   • coooperatives are autonomous self-help organisations controlled by their members

5. Focus on education, training and information

   • cooperatives provide education and training for their members and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of the cooperative

6. Cooperation among cooperatives

   • cooperatives seek to strengthen the cooperative movement by networking with other cooperatives

7. Concern for community

   • cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities

The cooperative advantage

The cooperative model offers a way for everday people to engage in a business which must, by design, operate on an economic cycle much longer than a single human lifespan. In addition:

• A cooperative can aggregate funds from hundreds of people to purchase land at scale thereby allowing forestry land to be acquired at an affordable price.

• Cooperatives, being mission driven, can commit to long term, multi-generational projects in ways standard businesses cannot.

• The one member one vote system is resistant against corporate raiding by wealthy shareholders who might seek to sell the business, thereby providing additional protection to its long-term mission.

• The Treeherder cooperative can use a pricing mechanism to ensure that early investors are not subsiding later investors and that a fair price is always paid.

• Treeherder members can redeem their stake in the cooperative at any time (dependent on an existing or new member willing to purchase their stake) thereby alleviating the need to commit to a long investment period.