Chocolate is the world’s favorite sweet treat – we consume more than 16 billion pounds of chocolate annually. But extreme weather patterns, pests and diseases, aging trees, and political factors, as well as improved production and increasing volumes from other geographies, are shifting the cocoa sector into new sourcing origins. These origins are outside of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which currently represent over 60% of production, and risk driving deforestation to expand cocoa’s footprint to meet global demand. Additionally, unprecedented traceability and sustainability requirements of recent forest-related legislation (e.g., EU Deforestation Regulation, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive), created a need for information addressing these factors to help the cocoa sector make informed sourcing choices.
Our Research
To help understand the complex dynamics in cocoa origins, Conservation International, with funding from Mars, undertook a comprehensive exploration into the interplay between cocoa cultivation, forests, and natural ecosystems across cocoa producing countries.
By enhancing understandings of the importance of forests and the communities that depend on them, this research is intended to help support industry in efforts to source deforestation and conversion-free cocoa, thereby helping safeguard ecosystems and the forests that serve as a natural shield against the adverse impacts of climate change.
The research spanned twelve countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Philippines, and Brazil – leveraging desk-based research and spatial analyses by Conservation International.
The culmination of these efforts is reflected in the country assessments which are available for download, each offering a multifaceted understanding of:
- Cocoa Production Insights: Explains the cocoa production landscape within each country, its unique dynamics and challenges.
- Forests and National Policy Frameworks: A holistic examination of the forests and the national policies relevant to cocoa cultivation.
- Mapping Sustainability Commitment Relevance: Detailed maps outlining areas pertinent to cocoa sourcing and impacts on forests and natural ecosystems when data are available.
- High-Level Recommendations: Strategic recommendations by Conservation International experts on impactful initiatives, addressing gaps in areas like land tenure, yield, data, sustainable production, and livelihoods diversification, and designed to generate support from suppliers, development partners, applicable governments, and other stakeholders.