CHOCOLATE’SDARK SECRETHow the Cocoa Industry
Destroys National Parks

By Etelle Higonnet,
Marisa Bellantonio,
and Glenn Hurowitz

Wild Chimpanzee Foundation

Acknowledgments

2This report was made possible thanks to thegenerous support of the Arcus Foundation. We
extend our thanks to MapHubs and Planet for
their mapping support, and to all the experts
who reviewed and helped improve this report.
Thanks also to Professor W. Scott McGraw
from the Ohio State University and to the Wild
Chimpanzee Foundation. Design by Shannon
Ryan of Burness.

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRETC

hocolate is everywhere. It is theafternoon pick-me-up, the sensual indulgence, theaccoutrement to seduction. Lovers gift truffles,skiers sip on rich hot chocolate, and connoisseurssavor the tiniest, richest bite of single origin
dark chocolate. The ancient Aztecs believed thatchocolate was an aphrodisiac, and the emperor
Montezuma was reported to gorge himself on
chocolate in advance of his trysts.

But chocolate is truly a guilty pleasure. Thousandsof miles away from the American and European
homes where the majority of the world’s chocolate
is devoured, lies the denuded landscape of West
Africa’s Ivory Coast. The nation is the world’s largest
producer of cocoa, the raw material for chocolate.
As its name suggests, elephants once abundantly
roamed the rainforests of Ivory Coast. Today’s reality
is much different: many of the country’s nationalparks and conservation lands have been cleared of
their forest to make way for cocoa operations to feeddemand from large chocolate companies like Nestlé,
Cadbury, and Mars.

Mighty Earth conducted an in-depth global
investigation into the cocoa that provides the raw
material for chocolate. These companies purchasethe cocoa for their chocolate bars from large
agribusiness companies like Olam, Cargill, andBarry Callebaut, who together control around halfof global cocoa trade.
Most strikingly, the investigation found that for
years the world’s major chocolate companies
have been buying cocoa grown through theillegal deforestation of national parks and otherprotected forests, in addition to driving extensive
deforestation outside of protected areas. In theworld’s two largest cocoa producing countries,
Ivory Coast and Ghana, the market created by the
chocolate industry has been the primary driverbehind the destruction of forests.
Many of Ivory Coast’s national parks and protectedareas have been entirely or almost entirely
cleared of forest and replaced with cocoa growing
operations. In neighboring Ghana, the situation is

Far from its origins inWest Africa, chocolate
is seen as a luxury
good in North America
and Europe and isoften advertised as asensual treat.

3

Mighty Earth’s
Investigation
Mighty Earth’s team visited
multiple protected areas
inside Ivory Coast and foundillegal cocoa production hadcompletely overtaken areasthat had previously been
covered by forests.
Ivory Coast
Source: UNEP-WCMC (2017).
Protected Area Profile for Côte
D’Ivoire from the World Database ofProtected Areas, July 2017. Available
at: www.protectedplanet.net

Mt Tia Classified
ForestMt Péko
National Park

Mt
Sassandra
Classified
ForestMarahoué National Park

Scio Classified Forest
Goin Débé Classified Forest
Taï National Park

similar: according to our analysis, 291,254 acresof protected areas were cleared between 2001 and2014. In that same time, Ghana lost 7,000 square
kilometers of forest, or about 10 percent of its
entire tree cover; approximately one quarter ofthat deforestation was connected to the chocolate
industry. Without action, Ghana stands to lose allremaining forests outside its national parks in thenext decade. Chimpanzees, elephants, and otherwildlife populations have been decimated by theconversion of forests in both countries to cocoa; inIvory Coast, only 200-400 elephants remain froman original population of hundreds of thousands.
Now, the chocolate industry is bringing its
unsustainable model of production to new forest
frontiers in other parts of Africa, Latin America
and Southeast Asia.

4

Fortunately, the world’s largest chocolatecompanies have begun to publicly acknowledge
their responsibility to address deforestation.
In early 2017, 34 leading chocolate companies
joined Prince Charles to pledge that they would
announce a plan in November 2017 to end
deforestation in the industry. However, they
provided no details about their plan. It may bepremature to be optimistic, as previous cocoa
sustainability initiatives have been too weak to
produce significant industry-wide results. This
report shows that the chocolate industry must
immediately end its illegal and destructive
practices, remediate past damage, and takeconcrete action to ensure that its mistakes in
Ivory Coast are not repeated.

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRET

1990

Forest Cover in Ivory Coast,
1990–2015

2000

2015

5

Alex Costa for Mighty Earth, 2017

A selection of chocolate from some of the world’s largest chocolate companies including Mars, Hershey’s, Nestlé, Mondelez,
Lindt and Ferrero. We found these companies connected to cocoa from sources linked to illegal deforestation.

Big Business, Big Impact
Chocolate is big business—in 2015 the global
market was approximately $100 billion. Each
year, the world consumes close to 3 million tons of
chocolate and other cocoa products, and demandgoes up by 2-5%. Most of the world’s chocolate is
manufactured and consumed in Europe and North
America, far from the fields in West Africa where
the majority of cocoa is grown. In the developed

world, chocolate is seen as an affordable luxury thatgives ordinary people a taste of sensuous delight atmodest cost. But in West Africa, chocolate is rare
and unaffordable to the majority of the population.
Most Ivorian cocoa farmers have never even tried
chocolate. Nonetheless, it is in West Africa andthe world’s other cocoa producing regions thatchocolate has its biggest impact.

The Cocoa Heartland
Much of Ivory Coast was densely covered byforests when it achieved independence in 1960,
making it prime habitat for forest elephants andchimpanzees. Ivory Coast once boasted one of6

the highest rates of biodiversity in Africa, withthousands of endemic species. However, thechocolate industry’s sourcing practices haveeliminated much of this forest. According toThomas Breuer

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRET

Forest elephants.

Ivorian government statistics and maps, less than
11 percent of the country remains forested, andless than four percent remains densely forested.1
The cocoa industry in Ivory Coast has not been
content with landscapes it was able to clear legally;in recent years, it has pushed large-scale growing
operations into the country’s national parks andother protected areas. Needless to say, clearing forest
to produce cocoa within protected areas violates
Ivorian law. A study conducted by scholars from
Ohio State University and several Ivorian academic
institutions examined 23 protected areas in Ivory
Coast, and found that seven of them had been almost
entirely converted to cocoa. More than 90% of theland mass of these protected areas was estimated tobe covered by cocoa.

1

The cumulative impact of the chocolate industry’s
deforestation has caused Ivorian wildlife
populations to plummet. Chimpanzees are now
found in just a few pockets throughout the nation
and are considered an endangered species. The
Ohio State study found that 13 of 23 Ivorianprotected areas had lost their entire primate
populations; in five areas, half the primate species
had disappeared. Elephants, the country’s national
symbol—plastered on every ‘Ivoire’ beer bottleand ‘Elephants’ soccer team jersey—are on theverge of total disappearance. While poaching isa major part of the threat to elephants, cocoadriven deforestation has pushed elephants into tiny
corridors of forest, making them easier for poachers
to track down and slaughter. Other animals in
Ivory Coast are also threatened as they rapidly lose
their last habitats, including pygmy hippos, flying
squirrels, pangolins, leopards and crocodiles.

The Ivorian government’s official submission to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization includes degraded forests
in its definition of forest, and reports that 10.6% of the country remains forested.

7

wrangelofficek_ki© Scott McGraw

Mighty Earth, 2017

Clockwise from left: Skeleton trees, pygmy hippopotamus, crocodile, Olive Colobus.

Tracking Cocoa from its Source
We traveled to Ivory Coast to see first-hand theorigins of the chocolate consumed around the world,
identify which companies are responsible for theindustry’s invasion of the country’s protected areas
and other deforestation, and develop solutions thatcan ensure that the cocoa industry can grow without
repeating its terrible mistakes. Mighty Earth’s teamvisited three protected areas: Goin Débé Forest, Scio
Forest, and Mt. Péko National Park. In addition, we
worked with a team that visited Mt. Sassandra Forest,
Tia Forest, and Marahoué National Park, whichshared their findings with us.
Through the investigation, we found three of theworld’s largest cocoa traders—Olam, Cargill, andBarry Callebaut—buying cocoa grown illegally inprotected areas. These traders are responsible
for selling cocoa to the world’s largest chocolatecompanies like Mars, Hershey, Mondelez, Ferrero,8

and others. And while these three traders were
the ones for which we found strong evidence
confirming their purchases of cocoa fromprotected areas, it is likely that other traders
engage in similar practices.2
The investigation found that illegal deforestation
for cocoa is an open secret throughout theentire chocolate supply chain. The process ofdeforestation for cocoa starts with settlers who
invade parks and other forested areas. Thesesettlers then progressively clear the underbrushof forests by cutting down or burning existingtrees. The photos presented here document how
this unsustainable form of cocoa production leaves
behind what are known as skeleton forests: trunks
denuded of their crowns and leaves that remain in
the cocoa monocultures as ghostly reminders of thegreat forests that once reigned.

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRET

With the forests gone, the settlers then plant cocoa
trees, which take years before they are ready for
harvest. Each cocoa tree bears two harvests ofcocoa pods per year. When cocoa is ready to be
harvested, farmers hack off the ripe cocoa pods
from the trees with machetes. They split open thepods to remove the cocoa beans, which they thensort through and place into piles. The beans areleft in the sun to ferment and dry; this is when thebeans turn brown.
It is at this point that a first level of middlemencalled “pisteurs” buy the cocoa beans from thesettlers, transport it to villages and towns acrossthe cocoa-growing region, and sell them onto
another set of middlemen, known as cooperatives.
The cooperatives then either directly or througha third set of middlemen bring the cocoa to thecoastal ports of San Pedro and Abidjan, where it

is sold to Olam, Cargill, and Barry Callebaut, whoship the cocoa to chocolate companies in Europe
and North America.
Throughout this path, the illegal origin of thecocoa is apparent. We visited entire illegal towns
and villages called ‘campements’ that havesprung up inside Ivory Coast’s national parks andprotected forests. Even though these settlements
are within protected areas, some boast tens of
thousands of residents, along with public schools,
official health centers, mosques, churches, stores,
and occasionally cell phone towers, in plainsight of government authorities. Pisteurs openly
admitted to us that they bought cocoa from inside
national parks and protected forests. Owners ofcooperatives within the illegal towns spoke openly
about sourcing cocoa from protected areas as well.
Cocoa traders and chocolate companies alike told

Mighty Earth, 2017

Growers sort through cocoa pods in Mt Péko National Park.

2 During the course of our investigation, an armed rebellion broke out that shut down roads and prevented our fieldteam from reaching some of the key cocoa growing areas where additional traders operate, so their activities
were not fully analyzed by this investigation.

9

Mighty Earth, 2017

Mighty Earth, 2017

Left: One of the cocoa growing villages in Scio Classified Forest. Right: Receipt for cocoa linked to deforestation in Scio.

us they were aware that significant amounts of thecocoa they purchase from Ivory Coast was likely
illegally grown in protected areas. The directorof the government’s Forest Reserve protection
agency (Sodefor) estimates that 40% of Ivoriancocoa comes from protected areas.3
Inside the Scio Classified Forest, for instance, we
visited a trading village called Sada, which boasts
approximately 22 cocoa stores and warehouses,
thousands of inhabitants, mosques, dozens of shops,
and even a school and health center. Here, we met apisteur named “Jean-François,”4 who described how
he would purchase cocoa from within Scio. Hours
later, we met Jean-François again in the SAFSOSARL cooperative in Sada, arranging a sale of cocoa.
In addition, we accessed a receipt from a cocoa

warehouse inside the park that documented a sale ofcocoa to the SAFSO cooperative.
In the larger trading town of Duékoué, we visitedthe ‘Porgo’ warehouse, and spoke to the owner, theeponymous Porgo. He brought us past a throng ofmen sifting cocoa and moving heavy bags into trucks,
to his back office, and recounted his experiences
as a grower and buyer. During the conversation, hereported buying cocoa from the Northeast cornerof Scio and then selling it to the cocoa giant Barry
Callebaut through their operations in San Pedro and
Abidjan. Employees of other large cocoa warehousesin Duékoué also described how their cocoa istransported to the ports of San Pedro or Abidjan,
where it is sold to the international cocoa traders
Olam and Cargill.

3 Researchers estimate that approximately 195,600 tons of cocoa were produced just in the 23 protected areas
the researchers analyzed in 2015 alone. There are 244 protected areas in Ivory Coast in total, suggesting thatthe volume of illegally grown cocoa is far greater.
4 A pseudonym.
10

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRETIn Western Ivory Coast, we visited cocoa stores in
the crossroads village known as “Paris,” which sits
at the edge of the Goin Débé protected area. This is
one of the key points where cocoa from inside Goin
Débé gets consolidated and loaded onto trucks fortransport to larger towns. Workers we interviewed
at this crossroads told us that their cocoa goes to
Guiglo’s Scoagg cooperative.
In Guiglo, staff at the Scoagg cooperative, controlled
by a man known as “Hassan,” confirmed that theysource from Scio. Scoagg staff also reported thatthey sell their cocoa to Cargill. Another Goin Débé
pisteur reported selling cocoa from the protectedarea to Cargill via the trading houses Chifousseini
and another nicknamed “NASA” in Guiglo.
All in all, we identified seven cooperatives whichbought cocoa from protected areas that we visited
and which confirmed that they sold their cocoa onto the major international traders Cargill, Olam,and Barry Callebaut. Clearly, these traders are theones responsible for creating a market for illegallygrown cocoa, setting the standards for cocoa
production throughout the region, and for the raw
materials that end up in chocolate bars consumed
around the world.

The Flow of Cocoa
This map tracks the path of cocoafrom illegal deforestation leaving
the country.

Protected areas
Ivory Coast

Trading townsMan
Mt Péko
National Park

Port cities

Scio
Classified
ForestGuigloMt TiaClassified Forest
Mt
VavouaSassandra Marahoué National Park
Classified
BouafléForestDaloa
DuékouéGoin Débé
Classified
ForestTaï National Park

Source: Mighty Earth 2017
Investigation
Map source: UNEP-WCMC (2017).
Protected Area Profile for Côte
D’Ivoire from the World Database ofProtected Areas, July 2017. Available
at: www.protectedplanet.net

Abidjan

San Pedro11World’s Largest Chocolate Companies Turn a Blind Eye
The results of our investigation implicate almost
every major chocolate brand. The chart on the
opposite page shows the links between large
chocolate companies and the cocoa traders.
Before releasing this report, we shared thefindings of our investigation with 70 chocolatecompanies. In their responses, none of thecompanies denied sourcing cocoa from protectedareas or disputed any of the facts we presented.
Some companies even acknowledged the needfor further action, but few outlined specific steps
they would take. Cargill stated: “The mapping
your organization has undertaken complements
the data we have gathered and the results ofour research indicate significant and increasing
tree cover loss in West Africa’s cocoa-producing
regions. While not all of this loss is directly
attributed to cocoa production alone, it provides
a picture of where tree cover loss is occurring andthe risk to the sustainable sourcing of cocoa.”

The Government’s RoleThe fact that companies like Cargill, Olam, andBarry Callebaut have been able to create a market
for cocoa grown in national parks and otherprotected areas for decades has not happened ina vacuum. These companies have taken advantageof lack of enforcement and corruption within the
Ivoirian government.
The Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves (OIPR)
is in charge of protecting parks and certain otherareas, while the forest development agency Sodeforis responsible for safeguarding the classified forests.
While OIPR’s administration of national parks
clearly could improve dramatically, this agency has
succeeded in keeping some parks relatively freefrom cocoa and other deforestation threats. On theother hand, Sodefor’s “classified forests” have a
4.2% deforestation rate, meaning that if the samerate of forest destruction from 1990-2015 were to
persist, all Ivorian primary forests would disappear
within a few decades.

12

Wild Chimpanzee Foundation

Mighty Earth, 2017

Sign on cocoa certification at the edge of Scio Classified Forest, which has been overtaken by illegal cocoa production.

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRETHow cocoa moves through the supply chain

Growers

Pisteurs

Traders

Co-ops

Chocolate Companies

13

Where is themoney fromyour chocolate
bar going?

44.2%
Retail

35.2%

Chocolate manufacturer

7.6%

Grinding &processing

Source: Cocoa
Barometer, 2015.

6.6%
Cocoa
farmers

4.3%
Taxes &
marketing
board

2.1%
Transportation& traders

Chocolate’s Human Impact
Between five and six million people, largely
smallholders, grow cocoa around the world.
In Ivory Coast, cocoa farmers earn around 50
cents per day and in Ghana around 84 cents
per day. Farmers are shortchanged since
chocolate’s revenue and profits are strongly
skewed towards traders and manufacturers.
The revenue distribution has only gotten worse:
In the 1980s, farmers received an average of
16% of the value of a chocolate bar. today, that
number is 6.6%. In comparison, 35% goes tochocolate companies and 44% goes to retailers
like supermarkets.
14

Additionally, the chocolate industry is notorious
for labor rights abuses including slave labor andchild labor. According to the US Department ofLabor, “21 percent more children are illegallylaboring on cocoa farms in Ghana and The
Ivory Coast than five years ago.” An estimated
2.1 million West African children are stillengaged in dangerous, physically taxing cocoa
harvesting. Rather than eliminate the problem,
the industry has merely pledged to reduce childlabor in Ivory Coast and Ghana by 70% by 2020.

Cocoafarmers’
daily wages
in Ivory Coast

Cocoa
farmers’
daily wages
in Ghana

54¢

82¢

There are 5-6 million
cocoa farmers
worldwide.
Nearly all farmers in Ivory Coast and
Ghana live under the poverty line.

Current PracticeSustainable Practice

Excessive use offertilizers and pesticides
and loss of biodiversity

Deforestation, full sun,susceptible to disease

Thriving ecosystem
and more biodiversity
with forests preserved

Shade-grown agroforestry

Over 2 million
children are victimsof the worst formsof child labor
Decent work conditions,diversified subsistence
food crops, better
livelihoods

Child labor, slavelabor, low wages

Fair prices andliving incomes

Chemicals pollute
waterways, killing wildlife
and harming communities

Inadequate prices, poverty for farmers
Decent pay means moneyfor food and school fees

Low pay foments foodinsecurity and low school
enrollment and attendance rates

Protected waterways

These problems of the government’s failure toeffectively address massive, rapid deforestation
were strongly criticized in a March 2017 letter tothe Ivorian Prime Minister, by the European Union,
France, Germany’s aid agency GIZ, and the United
Nations in Ivory Coast.

National Park (which means “mountain of hyenas”
in the local Gueré language). According to a reportby Human Rights Watch and the Ivorian Coalitionof Human Rights (RAIDH), the evictions werepoorly planned and carried out in violation ofhuman rights standards. When we visited Mount
Péko after the eviction, we found the park once
Many people we interviewed in Ivory Coast said
again filled with cocoa smallholders who hadthat Sodefor is actively profiting from illegal
returned. Some smallholders explained to us that
deforestation. In the words of one farmer wewhen they finally returned to Mount Péko, theyinterviewed in Goin Débé, “Sodefor comes and asks
simply paid the authorities higher bribes to go
for money, and then if you give it, there is no problem. back to cultivating their lands in the park.
Sodefor just tells us to grow the cocoa a few meters
away from the road so that the road looks forested.”
The government clearly needs to improve its wellmotivated efforts to more effectively restore the
The government of Ivory Coast took action
parks and other protected areas to their conservation
recently against cocoa-driven deforestation
mission while protecting human rights.
by expelling cocoa farmers from Mount Péko

Mighty Earth 201716

Mighty Earth 2017

Left: Smallholder farmer opening cocoa pod grown in Mt. Péko National Park. Right: Ancient trees in Scio Classified
Forest cut down and awaiting logging trucks.

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRET

Global cocoa production and consumption
Consumption

Cocoa production or consumption in 1,000 tons, 2013–14

Production

1,812

Europe287

Rest of Asia

775

165

U.S.

Japan

70

China

146

319

AfricaRest of Americas

45

India

198

79

BrazilRest of Asia

1,741

Côte
d’Ivoire

897

Ghana

258 228 210

Rest ofSouth
America547

Rest of
Africa405

Indonesia

Brazil Ecuador

72

Australia

Source: Cocoa Barometer, 2015; ICCO 2014.

Cocoa’s Next FrontiersWith demand for chocolate rising by two to five
percent each year, the chocolate industry hasaggressively expanded to other rainforest nations
around the world. In many places, it has exported
the same bad practices that contributed to thedestruction of West Africa’s forests.
Indonesia is notorious for deforestation for palmoil, timber, and paper, but cocoa is big businessas well. Between 1988 and 2007, 1.7 million acresof Indonesian forest were cleared for cocoa
production, equivalent to nine percent of thenation’s total deforestation for crops. Much of thisdeforestation has destroyed orangutan, rhino, tiger,
and elephant habitat.

Cocoa is also becoming a driver of deforestationin the Congo Basin, the most intact of the world’s
great rainforests. A recent study in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo examined the four majorcacao growing regions, and found that cacao
expansion could lead to the loss of 176 to 395
square kilometers of forest in the next decade,especially in the Equatorial Province towns ofMbandaka, Bikoro and Lukolela.
In South America, especially Peru, there has beena nearly five-fold increase in cocoa production
between 1990 and 2013. Satellite images in 2012
showed a cocoa company, United Cacao, destroying
nearly 5,000 acres of land for a cocoa plantation,
encroaching on the carbon-rich, biodiverse Amazon
rainforest in Peru.
17

Cocoa and Climate
Combined, deforestation for cocoa has a significant
impact on climate. Tropical rainforests such as theones being destroyed for cocoa production haveamong the highest carbon storage of any ecosystemon the planet. When they are cleared, they release
enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
From 1990 to 2008, the 27 member states of the
EU imported an estimated 1.48 million acres ofdeforestation embedded in cocoa production,
which is equivalent to around 8% of EU27’s
imported deforestation. Indeed, a single dark
chocolate bar made with cocoa from deforestation
produces the same amount of carbon pollution as
driving 4.9 miles in a car—an outsized impact for asmall afternoon treat.

A Sweeter Future?
The tragedy of this deforestation is that it is entirely
avoidable. Instead of driving investment in expansion
into forests or national parks, cocoa companies
should be focusing their resources on shade-growncocoa production and yield improvement.
In West Africa, the chocolate industry has mostly
relied on clearing forests and growing cocoa infull sun to boost short-run productivity. However,shade-grown cocoa (cocoa grows naturally under
the forest canopy) promotes nutrient cycling,erosion control, water regulation, nitrogen fixing,
crop pollination, and reduced weed growth. And

shade-grown systems can actually have higher
average productivity over the full life cycle of a
cocoa tree. Additionally, large cocoa companies cando more to improve productivity through better
water distribution and grafting techniques, among
other best practices.
To the extent that any additional expansion on
new land is still necessary, there are more than 300
million acres of previously deforested lands acrossthe tropics where crops like cocoa can be grownwithout threatening new deforestation.

18

Ian Jones 2017

The Prince of Wales and the world’s largest chocolate companies discussing an agreement to end deforestation.

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRET

19

Kumakonda May 2016

Taï National Park is the Ivory Coast’s
most preserved protected area andremains a biodiversity gem.

Based on similar situations in other commodities,
the cost for these improvements is unlikely tocost more than a few additional cents for every
chocolate bar. Indeed, companies that shift todeforestation-free agricultural production often
identified significant efficiencies that allowed themto increase profitability. Many traders shifting tosustainable production also attracted increased
market share from manufacturers willing to pay forenvironmentally responsible raw material supplies.
Several chocolate companies have launchedsmall-scale sustainability initiatives through theyears; however, as this investigation shows, thoseinitiatives have been inadequate to stop even themost egregious industry practices like sourcing
from legally protected forests. Even certification
programs that chocolate companies use to promote
their products as sustainable were found to havemostly failed to make a significant difference ona national level, according to a 2016 study by the
Bureau for the Appraisal of Social Impacts for
Citizen Information (BASIC).

expansion is done without deforestation in orderto protect High Carbon Stock landscapes or what
they’ll do in already denuded areas like the Ivory
Coast’s national parks and protected areas.
The Ivorian government has also stated its strong
interest in supporting conservation despite theirpast practices. The government has joined theUnited Nations program on reducing emissions
from deforestation and degradation (UN-REDD)
and created a national program on climatechange.5 It has also committed to producing zerodeforestation cocoa as of 2017 through the Cocoa
Carboneutre initiative, but this has not beenrealized nor has it achieved any tangible results on
the ground.
Although promises on paper have yet to translate
into a reality of forest protection, there is roomfor optimism that the Ivorian government would
support robust industry action in the immediate
future to save forests. The Ghanaian government
has also shown greater willingness to protect
forests than in the past.

Cocoa in the port town of San Pedro.

Fortunately, many major cocoa companies are
beginning to acknowledge the need for morecomprehensive action. In the first half of 2017,
Prince Charles launched an initiative with 34 of theworld’s biggest chocolate and cocoa companies to
end deforestation. However, the companies havenot provided any details about their plans, which
are due out later this year. For instance, they havenot committed yet to ensuring that any future20

5 In addition, the Ivorian Government signed the 2014 UN Climate Summit’s New York Declaration on Forests,
and has announced numerous other commitments to protect forests.

Mighty Earth 2017

Large parts of the palm oil, paper, sugar, soy,and rubber industries have adopted a strict
methodology, known as the High Carbon StockApproach, to target development onto degraded
land. Cocoa and chocolate companies including
Cargill, Olam, Nestle, Mondelez, Mars, Ferrero
Rocher and Hershey already apply that criterion totheir palm oil purchases. Deforestation for cocoa
is no more acceptable than deforestation for othercommodities, which is why these companies should
immediately extend their High Carbon Stockconservation commitments to cocoa as well.

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRET

Recommendations
for a Responsible
Future for the
Chocolate Industry
It’s not enough to announce
commitments, or adopt newpolicies on paper. To beeffective, and to give consumers
confidence that they can startfeeling better about the chocolate
they eat, the chocolate industry
and relevant governments must
adopt and fully execute detailed
implementation plans—plans thatshould be regularly monitored
and evaluated by independent
third parties.
The following are principles weencourage the chocolate industry
and governments to adopt.
These steps are modest in
cost, but can ensure that the
chocolate industry does notrepeat the mistakes of its past,and can actually make a positiveenvironmental and social impact
in the future. Chocolate lovers
could then finally enjoy theirfavorite treat without guilt.

PROTECT FORESTS, PERIOD.

The chocolate industry should end deforestation by immediately
ceasing purchasing from suppliers who engage in clearance ofHigh Carbon Stock and High Conservation Value lands. The
industry should shift its supply to shade-grown cocoa.

TRANSPARENCY AND TRACEABILITY.

Major chocolate companies should make available online theidentities and locations of their suppliers. Governments should
also recognize and improve land tenure (including throughcommunity and farmer education), disclose any funds government
agencies or personnel receive from the cocoa industry, and review
cooperative designations.

JOINT ACTION.

The cocoa industry and governments should pool resources
to monitor deforestation and enforce compliance with zerodeforestation policies. The industry can use the successful
Brazilian Soy Moratorium as a model.6

HUMAN RIGHTS.

Cocoa expansion should be done in ways that protect indigenous
community rights, including the right to free, prior, and informed
consent (FPIC). The chocolate industry and affected governments
should also ensure that cocoa farmers receive a living wage, thatforced labor is prohibited, and action is taken to discourage illegal
child labor. Use of hazardous pesticides should be immediately
eliminated.7

RESTORE IVORY COAST’S FORESTS.

Despite the near-total destruction of Ivory Coast’s classified
forests and the damages to the country’s national parks, there arestill more than 20 protected areas that remain forested to somedegree, and which can and should be restored.8

For citations, please go to www.mightyearth.org/chocolatesdarksecret/citations
6 In the Brazilian Amazon Soy Moratorium, all major soy traders pooled resources to monitor deforestation, increasing
accuracy and reducing costs for individual companies substantially. Agribusinesses agreed to automatically end
purchases from any farmers found to be engaged in deforestation. Deforestation for soy in the Brazilian Amazon thenplummeted within three years to virtually zero – and has stayed there for a decade. Meanwhile, farmers were able toexpand soy production by more than six million acres during that time by focusing expansion on degraded land.
7 As defined by the Stockholm Convention and Rotterdam Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
8 Priorities for restoration should include Abouderessou, Adzope, Azagny National Park, Banco National Park, BandamaBlanc, Bandama Rouge, Beki Bosse Matie, Besso, Boa, Bolo, Comoe National Park, Dassieko, Go Bodienou, Gouari, HauteDodo, Hein*, Iles Ehotile National Park, Irobo, Kinkene, Krozalie*, Mabi/Yaya, Mount Nimba*, Mont Peko National Park*, Mont
Sangbe National Park, Mont Sassandra, N. Zodji, N’Zo Fauna Reserve*, Nangbyon*, Nguechie*, Nibi Hana, Niegre, Orumbo
Boka, Port Gautier, Scio, Suitoro, Songan/Tamin, Taï National Park*, Tiapleu, and Yarani. Areas with asterisks next to theirnames have significant remaining forest, and could be prioritized as the immediate targets for initial restoration efforts.

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Only skeleton trees remain ofwhat was once a lush tropicalforest in Scio Classified Forest,
cut down for cocoa.

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Mighty Earth 2017

C H O CO L ATE ’ S DARK SECRET© Scott McGraw

Diana monkey near the western borderof Taï National Park in Ivory Coast.
Primate populations in Ivorian forests
have sharply declined, often due tococoa encroachment.

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