Chocolate companies fight West African deforestation

The twelve largest chocolate and cocoa companies in the world are joining forces to fight off deforestation in West Africa, a promise they made during a meeting with Prince Charles.

Half of rain forest is gone

Alongside the twelve companies (including Mars, Hersheys and Barry Callebaut), the governments in Ivory Coast and Ghana have also committed to support the case. The goal is to push back the deforestation caused by the cocoa cultivation, the reason that half of the world’s rain forest was cut. For instance, 80 % of the rain forest in the Ivory Coast was cut in the 1980s, to make room for cocoa plantations.

The huge demand for chocolate and the increased cocoa price makes it very interesting for local farmers to cut down forest and thus create more land, exactly what this new collaboration intends to fight. The government in the Ivory Coast has now confirmed that every farmer with a piece of land in parks and nature reserves will need to get rid of it. The local goal is to double its forest volume by 2020.

In order to meet the world’s demand for cocoa, the companies want to develop several initiatives, with Mars intent to increasing the yield per hectare, which would lower the amount of land needed, a strategy it feels has not been pursued enough over the past few years. The entire range of initiatives will be unveiled in November and other countries in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia may also partake.