Sustainable Cocoa Production: Progress in Forest Protection in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

The governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and 35 companies in the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI), including IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), reported progress made towards ending deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. 

Deforestation is a major issue in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together produce nearly two-thirds of the world’s supply of cocoa. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana respectively lost 25% and 8% of their primary forest between 2002-2019, with a significant portion of deforestation due to cocoa farming.

To end deforestation and restore forest areas, the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and 35 leading cocoa and chocolate companies have joined together in the Cocoa & Forests Initiative since 2017. Despite pandemic challenges, there was progress in the past year, according to the report:

• Côte d’Ivoire planted more than 28 million trees for the purpose of forest regeneration. Ghana restored 9,488 ha of degraded forest and helped 4,302 farmers to register 50,344 forest trees; 
• Cocoa and chocolate companies distributed 11.3 million non-cocoa trees for the development of agroforestry in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and have reached a stable 72% traceability in their direct supply chains; 
• Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have reached new milestones in traceability: The government of Côte d’Ivoire has mapped 1 million farmers with 3.2 million ha of cocoa farms. In Ghana a total of 515,762 farmers owning 845,635 farms have been registered in the national Cocoa Management System, accounting for 72 percent of the total cocoa area.