This was to be achieved through credit at both the regional and communal levels and community development efforts focusing on 20 terroirs in the communes of Ditinn, Bodie, Doune, Mafara and Poredaka. Intensive management schemes of land resources were to be undertaken at the commune level. The Fouta Djallon region of Guinea is a former autocratic empire with a highly developed social organization along with specific land tenure arrangements that limit access to land to the founding families. The topography is a combination of valley bottoms, plains and mountains and has great ecological value for most of West Africa with the major rivers having their head sources in the region. Although there appears to be two distincts rural activities, agriculture and livestock, they constitute the same local strategy adapted to the area.
Most families engage in both activities.
The former communist regime froze these traditional structures and rights to land for a long period of time. These structures are currently being rehabilitated. The region is confronted with many constraints, including lack of feeder roads, weak rural incomes, the total absence of social and economic infrastructures and the high-level of seasonal and permanent migration of men. However, the design emphasizes that more resources and efforts be directed at the commune and community level. The investment program at the community level includes the establishment of economic and social infrastructures and micro-enterprises through grants and credit.