- Bittersweet consequences. Global chocolate value chains are fueling desertification across West Africa, a new report says.
- As chocolate demand soars, Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans is paying a huge price with 80 percent of its forest cover lost.
- Corruption fueling illegal logging and deforestation of rainforests for cocoa farms
The raw material needed to make chocolate is cocoa beans, but West Africa, which produces 40 percent of the world’s produce, is destroying its rainforests at an unprecedented pace to feed global demand.
Already, Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans has lost 80 percent of its forest cover over in just sic decades, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports.
FAO’s Transparency, Traceability and Deforestation survey in the Ivorian cocoa supply belt shows that the unmonitored value chain of chocolate is leaving populations vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change.
Chocolate demand rising globally
Whatever your favorite brand of chocolate may be, they all have one thing in common, cocoa beans. And the demand is set to keep soaring. According to Grand View Research, the market size of chocolate globally was estimated at $113.16 billion in 2021 and is projected to increase at 3.7 percent per year from 2022 to 2030.
The research was spearheaded by a Belgian University under the blessings of European Union (EU) regulations which require all products imported into the bloc to be traceable to the original producer.
But the bloc has not been living up to this standard. The European Union imported 60 percent of the Ivory Coast cocoa beans in 2019 yet, “a big part of deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana is due to cocoa, the main ingredient in your chocolate.”
In 2019, only 44 percent of cocoa exports from Côte d’Ivoire could be traced back to a specific cooperative, the study showed.
All this time, cocoa beans used to make chocolate in the UK were been sourced indirectly from local actors and exported without information about their true source, all against the EU traceability regulations.
Also Read: West Africa’s successful cocoa coup heralds new dawn
Stopping deforestation: Chose your chocolate wisely
Some efforts to check deforestation are however in the pipeline. To curb the deforestation of rainforests in West Africa the Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI) was formed. The initiative brings together authorities from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and even Colombia, all of which are major cocoa producers.
Already, the CFI has been enacted by the UK and is signed by at least 35 chocolate and cocoa companies around the world. The CFI looks to commit cocoa producers and manufacturers of chocolate to end deforestation and formalize the cocoa supply chain. Despite the commendable effort, the researchers deem the initiative “too little too late.”
“The information that companies have and disclose about their cocoa supply chains is disparate. It is also challenging to assess where companies source their cocoa from,” FAO noted.
A counter initiative, Transparency for Sustainable Economies (Trase), seeks to provide a better understanding of cocoa supply chain. Currently, some gaps in the supply chain make traceability of cocoa beans almost impossible.
To tackle massive deforestation, the researchers are calling for enforcement of strong land-use policies. Further, they are also recommending systems to trace the bean down to the farm level. What is also needed is accountability on the part of chocolate companies. For manufactures, the report said they should be required to prove their cocoa beans are not causing deforestation.
“Natural soil has better nutrients than already farmed cocoa fields, this leads to forests being cleared to allow for cocoa cultivation.”
Quality and quantity of cocoa beans dropping
Cocoa farmers are failing to improve or maintain soil fertility. In order to remain in business, farmers move on to new lands after five to ten years of farming. With falling fertility levels, the quality and quantity of cocoa beans usually drops.
Read also: Climate-proofing Côte d’Ivoire’s smallholder cocoa farm yields
“When soil fertility dwindles, farmers move to next fresh two to three acres of virgin forest to plant new crop. This is replicated in many parts of east-central and western Côte d’Ivoire, leading to a growth of towns and villages in protected forest areas,” reveals the report.
Interestingly, these new settlements in cleared rainforest areas are not small by any account. An example offered by the researchers shows an illegal settlement of over 30,000 people. This chunk of land was recently discovered in the Marahoué and Mont Péko national parks.
Worse still, deforestation is not only fueled by the high demand for cocoa beans. Huge demand for wood fuel is compounding the problem. FAO findings say that farmers earn substantial income from logging companies. The bulk of the wood comes from otherwise protected forest areas.
“This practice has proved more lucrative for farmers than cocoa bean production, making illegal logging arguably one of the country’s most prevalent and lucrative forms of organized crime,” reveals the report.
Role of corruption in deforestation
Corruption, too, is part of the problem. For 30,000 plus people to settle in a “protected” forest area, someone gets his hands greased.
“The Ministry of Water and Forests (in Cote d’ Ivoire) estimates that illicit networks produce 15 to 30 times more timber than formally licensed traders, making illegal logging worth more than €33.5 million annually – about 7 percent of the country’s GDP.”
And as a result, Côte d’Ivoire lost 47 000 hectares of forest in its cocoa belt in 2020 alone. At this rate, experts argue one should expect total depletion of the country’s forest cover by 2034.
Along with the first-hand effects of deforestation, the illegal cocoa farming and logging business is worsening climate change. Since these cleared areas are mostly rainforests, there is also a great loss of endangered tree species. Similarly, there is also a huge loss of biodiversity and wildlife.
