topic: Cocoa

topic: Cocoa

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In Côte d’Ivoire a changing climate hits farmers and markets alike
- Towns across Côte d’Ivoire are facing shortages of staple foods like plantain and tomatoes, due to erratic weather.
- Prolonged drought and heavy rains have affected growers in towns like Soubré, who are struggling to maintain sufficient production to supply local markets.
- An expert says adapting to the new climate reality is key, and proposes training farmers in new agricultural techniques and improving natural resource management.

Hybrid mapping method key to EUDR cocoa compliance, study finds

A coalition of organizations has assessed how locally produced maps stack up against global open-access data sets to evaluate deforestation in the context of cocoa production. The assessment will be useful for cocoa producers as they work toward compliance with the EU anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR), set to take effect at the end of the year, […]
Côte d’Ivoire cacao farmers struggle as climate havoc devastates crops
- Farmers in a cacao-producing region of southwestern Côte d’Ivoire have seen their yields decline so much that they’re abandoning their plantations and considering switching to other crops.
- They say cacao, long a mainstay of the agricultural economy of this region and the country, is no longer profitable due to changing weather patterns and an increase in plant diseases like swollen shoot.
- An agronomist says the changing weather is partly due to deforestation caused by the expansion of cacao production in recent decades, and recommends agroforestry and reforestation as a remedy.

New study assesses threat to wildlife from cacao expansion in Congo Basin
- Wildlife in the heart of the Congo Basin, an area that stretches from western and southern Cameroon to northeastern and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, are most at risk from the expansion of cacao cultivation, a recent study found.
- Cameroon, the world’s fourth-largest cacao producer, wants to double its output by 2030 — an ambition at odds with the country’s stubbornly low yields, changing climatic conditions, and the demand for “deforestation-free” cocoa from consumer nations.
- “Cameroon has little area available for agricultural expansion outside forests,” Marieke Sassen, a co-author of the new study, told Mongabay.
- Three-quarters of Cameroon’s cocoa is destined for the European Union, which passed a regulation in 2023 to ban imports of cocoa produced on recently deforested or degraded forestland.

‘Uncertainty’ amid EUDR delay poses challenges for cocoa companies, farmers
- Dutch chocolate maker Tony’s Chocolonely has long been at the forefront of pushing for more sustainability in cocoa production.
- The company has set up a blockchain-backed traceability system based on satellite imagery and polygon-mapping of the farms from which it sources its cocoa, ahead of application of the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products, or EUDR, which lays out requirements for importing goods into the EU.
- But more conventional chocolate sellers like Nestlé have also backed the EUDR, which aims to get rid of deforestation in the supply chains of imported commodities like cocoa.
- African governments have begun to tackle deforestation with an international initiative of their own called ARS-1000. Observers say they hope these regulations will also help provide better technical and economic support to the farmers who supply much of the world’s cocoa.

Agribusiness giant Olam gets head start on EUDR; its suppliers, not so much
- Some smallholder farmers, associations and suppliers in exporting countries are concerned about their readiness for the EU’s antideforestation law due to a lack of technology, information and resources.
- Meanwhile, leading agricultural commodity businesses such as Olam Agri and ofi say they expect to be ready before the legislation comes into force at the end of 2025.
- Olam Agri and ofi say they’ve developed and implemented advanced traceability and information systems to meet regulatory requirements, as well as other tools and technologies.
- But independent experts warn that pressure to meet the law’s obligations are leading to large companies dropping suppliers who aren’t ready, and pushing smallholders to switch to crops where traceability and sustainability aren’t strict requirements.

Even for ‘progressive’ Danone, complying with EUDR is a challenge
- The EU deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) requires companies importing cocoa, cattle, rubber, soy, wood, palm oil and coffee into the EU to demonstrate their products weren’t grown on land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020.
- French dairy giant Danone works with soy, cocoa and palm oil — products subject to the EUDR, which goes into effect at the end of 2025.
- In general, Danone’s sustainability policies have been better than most, outsider observers said. But it still has a lot of work to do to ensure 100% of its supply chain is free of deforestation and land conversion.

Parties gutting EUDR received donations from companies tied to illegal deforestation: Report
- The EU Parliament has voted to postpone the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year after strong opposition to the law from EU member states, export countries, traders, and operators.
- It has also approved a series of amendments put forward by the large center-right European People’s Party (EPP), which called for less stringent requirements.
- In a new report, the NGO Earthsight linked donors linked to illegal deforestation and likely benefits from this amendment to EPP member parties in Germany and Austria, which have called for the revision of the law.
- Supply chain analysts and environmentalists said the changes will open up loopholes undermining forest conservation and facilitating the laundering of illegally sourced commodities in the EU.

Is the delay of Europe’s deforestation regulation a cause for regret, or an opportunity? (commentary)
- In early October, the European Commission proposed a one-year postponement of the EU’s new deforestation regulation (EUDR) in order to assist global stakeholders, member states and other countries in their preparations.
- Is such a delay to be lamented, as many NGOs and commentators say? This is happening in a context of the weakening of many environmental measures, after all.
- “This ambitious regulation, with its undeniable objectives, is ill-conceived – because it ignores the problems of implementation – and is giving rise to unprecedented diplomatic tensions. Shouldn’t we take advantage of this probable postponement to try and correct some of the text’s major flaws?” a new op-ed asks.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

225 NGOs call on EU to reject delay to deforestation law

A group of 225 global NGOs from more than 40 countries has issued a statement urging the European Parliament and EU governments to reject a proposal that would delay the implementation of the EU’s ambitious anti-deforestation law by a year. The collective statement, titled “Hands off the EU deforestation regulation!,” noted that the law was […]
The world’s chocolate cravings speed up deforestation in the Congo Basin: Study
- A recent study found that cacao farming in the Congo Basin, the world’s largest carbon sink, is linked with up to seven times more deforestation than other agricultural activities.
- Outside experts say that major global, economic and social pressures are influencing cacao farmers’ actions and call on international chocolate companies to better support farmers on the ground.
- Across cacao-producing countries in Africa, experts say that diversifying crops, rotating crops and changes in the supply chain are key to more sustainable farming practices.
- Agricultural trade drives an estimated 90% of global deforestation and more than 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Biden Administration mistakenly seeks delay of EU’s new deforestation regulation (commentary)
- “If the Biden Administration is serious about a global zero-deforestation agenda while helping US agribusiness, it should proactively support the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) abroad, and double down at home on support for U.S. soy farmers and cattle ranchers to comply with the EUDR,” a new op-ed argues.
- Rather than support it, the U.S. is demanding that the European Union delay the EUDR, parroting arguments put forth by a small number of the U.S.’s least ethical producers, while ignoring thousands of companies and investors actively supporting the EUDR.
- “The U.S. has such limited deforestation exposure on soy and cattle it exports to the EU that most U.S. soy and cattle exports to Europe will likely benefit from the EUDR. The exact opposite of what Vilsack, Raimundo, and Tai’s letter argues.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

As chocolate prices skyrocket from decades of deforestation, adopting agroforestry is key (commentary)
- It’s been reported that climate change is the reason for record high chocolate prices, but what’s received less attention is the root cause of the problem.
- Chocolate costs more now due to decades of deforestation by the cocoa industry in West Africa, where much of the world’s supply is grown, earning it the moniker of “cannibal commodity.”
- “The good news is that chocolate companies and producer governments still can address the problem. To contain the impacts of past deforestation and promote predictability in production, they must transform all existing monoculture cocoa to shade-grown or agroforestry cocoa,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Sierra Leone cacao project boosts livelihoods and buffers biodiversity
- The Gola rainforest in West Africa, a biodiversity hotspot, is home to more than 400 species of wildlife, including endemic and threatened species, and more than 100 forest-dependent communities living just outside the protected Gola Rainforest National Park and dependent on the forest for their livelihoods.
- In the last few decades, logging, mining, poaching and expanding agriculture have driven up deforestation rates and habitat loss for rainforest-dependent species, prompting a voluntary REDD+ carbon credit program in 2015 to incentivize conservation and provide alternative livelihoods.
- One activity under the REDD+ project is shade-grown cacao plantations, which provide a wildlife refuge while generating income for cacao farmers in the region.
- Independent evaluations have found that the REDD+ program has slowed deforestation, increased household incomes, and avoided 340,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually — all while enjoying support from local communities.

Elephants invade as habitat loss soars in Nigerian forest reserve
- Elephants straying out of Afi River Forest Reserve in the Nigerian state of Cross River are reportedly damaging surrounding farms.
- This uptick in human-wildlife conflict comes as satellite data show continuing and increasing deforestation in the Afi River reserve and other protected areas.
- The habitat in Afi River Forest Reserve provides a crucial corridor that connects critically endangered Cross River gorilla populations in adjacent protected areas.
- As in other Nigerian forest reserves, agriculture, poverty and a lack of monitoring and enforcement resources are driving deforestation in the Afi River reserve.

Poverty-fueled deforestation of Nigerian reserve slashes hope for rare chimps
- Less than 20 year ago, Akure-Ofosu Forest Reserve was regarded as a potential conservation site for endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees.
- But between 2001 and 2022, the reserve lost nearly half of its old growth forest cover, a trend that shows no sign of stopping.
- Akure-Ofosu’s forest is being lost due to the proliferation small-scale farms within the reserve.
- Facing an unemployment rate surpassing 50% and a soaring level of poverty, many Nigerians have few options other than to settle in the country’s protected areas and hew farms from forest.

Deforestation ‘out of control’ in reserve in Brazil’s cattle capital
- Forest destruction has ravaged Triunfo do Xingu, a reserve earmarked for sustainable use that has nonetheless become one of the most deforested slices of the Brazilian Amazon.
- Fires burned swaths of the reserve in recent months and forest clearing has surged, with satellite images showing even the most remote remnants of old-growth rainforest were whittled away last year.
- Advocates say the forest is mainly giving way to cattle pasture, although illegal mining and land grabbing are gaining ground.
- The destruction, facilitated by lax environmental regulation, is placing pressure on nearby protected areas and undermining agroforestry efforts in Triunfo do Xingu, advocates say.

In Brazil’s Amazon, land grabbers scramble to claim disputed Indigenous reserve
- The Apyterewa Indigenous Territory has been under federal protection since 2007, but in recent years has become one of the most deforested reserves in Brazil, as loggers, ranchers and miners have invaded and razed swaths of forest.
- As President Jair Bolsonaro prepares to leave office, land grabbers are rushing to “deforest while there is still time,” advocates say, with forest clearing in Apyterewa on track to hit new highs this year.
- The surge in invasions has aggravated a decades-long tussle for land between Indigenous people and settlers, who first started trickling into Apyterewa in the 1980s and have since built villages, schools and churches within the reserve.
- The Parakanã people say the outsiders, new and old, are polluting their water sources, depleting forest resources, and threatening their traditional way of life.

Consumed: What is the environmental impact of chocolate?

Chocolate in all its delicious forms is one of the world’s favorite treats. Per capita consumption in the U.S. alone averages around 9 kilograms (19.8 pounds) per year. The industry is worth more than $90 billion globally. But what are the environmental consequences of our chocolate obsession? Ingredients — including cocoa, palm oil and soy […]
Delectable but destructive: Tracing chocolate’s environmental life cycle
- Chocolate in all its delicious forms is one of the world’s favorite treats. Per capita consumption in the U.S. alone averages around 9 kilograms (19.8 pounds) per year. The industry is worth more than $90 billion globally.
- Ingredients — including cocoa, palm oil and soy — flow from producer nations in Africa, Asia and South America to processors and consumers everywhere. But a recent study reveals that large amounts of these commodities are linked to indirect supply chains, falling outside sustainability programs and linked to untraced deforestation.
- Key producers of these commodities — mostly West African countries for cocoa, Brazil for soy, and Indonesia for palm oil — have faced extensive deforestation due to agricultural production, and will likely face more in future as chocolate demand increases.
- Production, transport and consumption of chocolate also have their own environmental impacts, some of which remain relatively understudied. But researchers inside and outside the industry are working to better trace chocolate deforestation, and to make processing, shipping and packaging more sustainable.

Deforestation on the rise as poverty soars in Nigeria
- Akure-Ofosu Forest Reserve was established to help protect what is now one of largest remaining tracts of rainforest in Nigeria, and is home to many species.
- But fire and logging is rampant in the reserve, with satellite data showing it lost 44% of its primary forest cover in just two decades; preliminary data indicate deforestation may be increasing further in 2022.
- Sources say poverty is the driving force behind the deforestation of Akure-Ofosu and other protected areas in Nigeria.
- According to the World Bank, 4 in 10 Nigerians – about 80 million people – were living below in poverty in 2019, with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing another 5 million people below the poverty line by 2022.

To cooperatively stop deforestation for commodities, navigating ‘legal’ vs ‘zero’ is key (commentary)
- As a decade-long effort by the private sector to voluntarily eliminate deforestation from commodity supply chains stalls, the EU, UK, and US are all considering trade regulations.
- But policy makers and advocates have been debating the relative merits of trade barriers based on a “legality” or “zero-deforestation” standard: we believe this presents a false dichotomy. Both are necessary, from different stakeholders.
- Importing countries must support forest country governance and ownership of deforestation reduction goals, while the private sector must rapidly accelerate their implementation of zero-deforestation commitments. This “international partnership pathway” offers a more equitable and likely faster strategy, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

DRC’s cacao boom leaves a bitter aftertaste for Congo Basin forest
- The DRC’s Tshopo province lost a record-breaking area of intact forests to fires in 2021, a trend researchers say is driven by agricultural expansion, as displaced people from the violence-ravaged eastern DRC move into the province.
- There’s been an increase in clearing of forests to cultivate food crops and cash crops like cacao beans, used to make cocoa for chocolate.
- Around 70% of the world’s supply of cacao beans is produced in West African countries, with Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon the biggest producers, where its cultivation has also accelerated deforestation.
- “You are aware of what has happened in West Africa in countries like Ivory Coast and Ghana,” Germain Batsi, a DRC agroforestry expert, told Mongabay. “I am afraid such scenarios will be reproduced here, something we would regret afterwards.”

Why farmers, not industry, must decide the future of cocoa (commentary)
- As companies, NGOs, and experts look to agroforestry to solve many of the sustainability challenges facing the cocoa sector, Mighty Earth analyst Sam Mawutor argues that the cocoa agroforestry ‘revolution’ must be one led by farmers
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

With ‘sustainable’ cocoa, Mars pushes climate, market risks onto farmers
- Corporate strategies that force cocoa farmers to stay in place to increase productivity amid the impacts of climate change are putting smallholders at greater risk to economic and environmental impacts, a new study says.
- The study analyzed efforts supported or carried out by Mars Inc., one of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers and cocoa buyers, in Indonesia, which produces a tenth of the world’s cocoa.
- “Many agricultural intensification initiatives assume that by boosting productivity, smallholder incomes will increase, and therefore vulnerability to climate shocks will decrease. Yet, the reality is much more complicated,” says study author Sean Kennedy.
- “When some entity is saying, ‘Here’s a climate-adaptation program intended to keep people in place,’ often staying in place is not the best way to adapt to climate change,” he adds.

Endangered chimps ‘on the brink’ as Nigerian reserve is razed for agriculture, timber
- As rainforest throughout much of the country has disappeared, Nigeria’s Oluwa Forest Reserve has been a sanctuary for many species, including Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees – the rarest chimpanzee subspecies.
- But Oluwa itself has come under increasing deforestation pressure in recent years, losing 14% of its remaining primary forest between 2002 and 2020.
- Oluwa’s deforestation rate appears to be increasing, with several large areas of forest loss occurring in 2021– including in one of the last portions of the reserve known to harbor chimps.
- Agriculture and timber extraction are the main drivers of deforestation in Oluwa; smallholders looking to eke out an existence continue to move into the reserve and illegally clear forest and hunt animals for bushmeat, while plantation companies are staking claims to government-granted concessions.

Deforestation soars in Nigeria’s gorilla habitat: ‘We are running out of time’
- Afi River Forest Reserve (ARFR), in eastern Nigeria’s Cross River state, is an important habitat corridor that connects imperiled populations of critically endangered Cross River gorillas.
- But deforestation has been rising both in ARFR and elsewhere in Cross River; satellite data show 2020 was the biggest year for forest loss both in the state and in the reserve since around the turn of the century – and preliminary data for 2021 suggest this year is on track to exceed even 2020.
- Poverty-fueled illegal logging and farming is behind much of the deforestation in ARFR. Resource wars have broken out between communities that have claimed the lives of more than 100, local sources say.
- Authorities say a lack of financial support and threats of violence are limiting their ability to adequately protect what forest remains.

Amazon, meet Amazon: Tech giant rolls out rainforest carbon offset project
- Tech giant Amazon has announced a nature-based carbon removal project in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
- The project will help small farmers produce sustainable agricultural produce through reforestation and regenerative agroforestry programs, in exchange for carbon credits that will go to the internet company.
- Called the Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator, the initiative is expected to support 3,000 small farmers in Pará state and restore an area the size of Seattle in the first three years, and in the process remove up to 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through 2050.
- In addition to addressing climate and social issues, the partners say the project intends to address the shortcomings of the carbon credit market by creating new standards for the industry.

It’s Juneteenth, but these American companies are still profiting from slavery (commentary)
- Samuel Mawutor, forest campaign group Mighty Earth’s Senior Advisor for Africa, argues that while June 19th marks the official end of slavery in the Confederacy, American agribusiness companies are still engaging in practices analogous to slavery in their commodity supply chains.
- Mawutor specifically calls out Cargill, which he says isn’t doing enough to address labor abuses in its cocoa supply chain.
- “The cocoa sector is notorious for its widespread use of child labor and other abuses– so much so that in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, groups from both cocoa producing and consuming countries signed an open letter on racial injustice in the cocoa sector,” Mawutor writes. “It is estimated that 1.56 million children work in the cocoa industry; many are forced to use dangerous tools and chemicals and carry enormous weights, in direct violation of international labor standards, the UN convention on child labor, and domestic laws.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

To save chocolate’s future, ‘start now and go big’ on agroforestry
- Cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire began in the 1950s in forests bordering Ghana, and progressively shifted west as trees were removed and soil exhausted. Côte d’Ivoire lost 217,866 hectares of protected forest from 2001 to 2014 to monocultures of it.
- Now, the region where cocoa can be grown is shrinking due to climate and rainfall patterns: agroforestry is the sole way ensure that it can continue as the mainstay crop of the economies of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, so it’s time to ‘go big’ on implementing it widely.
- Agroforestry cools the microclimates on farms and increases climate resiliency and biodiversity, but is a complex, time consuming technique that varies by region.
- Careful selection of tree species and spacing are critical to maximize yields, which is a key problem to solve toward wider adoption of agroforestry-grown chocolate.

Drinking coffee in the U.S.? Worry about forests in Vietnam, study says
- The U.S.’s thirst for coffee drives forest loss in central Vietnam, while Germany’s craving for cocoa is doing the same in West Africa, a landmark study that tracks the drivers of deforestation across borders found.
- The paper foregrounds international trade as a culprit for deforestation by calculating countries’ deforestation footprints based on their consumption and trade patterns.
- The world’s wealthiest countries are, in essence, outsourcing deforestation by consuming goods that pose a high risk of deforestation, especially in tropical countries, many of which are biodiversity hotspots.
- More data is needed to link clearly the demand for specific commodities in one country and its impact on forest loss in other countries, the study authors said.

Getting hands-on with pollination can boost cocoa yields, study shows
- Less than 10% of flowers in a cocoa tree are pollinated in natural conditions. Efforts to bolster the yields traditionally involved breeding programs or the use of fertilizers and other chemicals.
- A new study on Indonesian cocoa farms took a different approach: pollinating by hand. Researchers compared cocoa yields using their hands-on process versus traditional farming practices.
- Hand pollination increased cocoa fruit yields by 51% to 161%. Even considering the cost of hand-pollination efforts, small-scale farmers had markedly higher incomes from the hands-on approach.

Rainforest Alliance Certification gets a 2020 upgrade
- Rainforest Alliance has announced new, more robust criteria for certification. The rollout of the new program begins this September and companies will be audited against the new standards beginning in July 2021.
- The updated certification program provides new standards for farmers and companies in the areas of human rights, supply chains, livelihoods, deforestation and biodiversity and provides new data systems and tools for management.
- Currently, 44,000 products with the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal or UTZ label are available.

Takeover of Nigerian reserve highlights uphill battle to save forests
- Akure-Ofosu Forest Reserve in southwestern Nigeria, home to rare primates and valuable timber trees, has some of the highest deforestation rates in the country.
- Logging is ostensibly prohibited, but sawmills thrive here, while farmers who clear land inside the reserve often have their actions legitimized by the authorities.
- Researchers say poverty and a lack of jobs are at the root of the problem, with communities compelled to farm, log and hunt in the absence of other forms of livelihoods.
- With Nigeria’s forest reserves among the few areas left unfarmed, population pressure threatens to drive an influx of newcomers from all around the country into these reserve areas in the competition for arable land.

Drones in the canopy: Project aims to save the Amazon with technology
- In seeking an alternative to the develop-or-conserve dichotomy that governs policymaking over the Amazon, Brazilian scientists have come up with the Amazonia Third Way, a plan to preserve the region’s biodiversity by supercharging sustainable forestry practices with technology.
- In the second half of this year, three communities in Pará state will receive the first creative laboratories — mobile units that will bring technologies such as blockchain and drones to the cocoa and cupuaçu production processes. Future laboratories will focus on Brazil nuts, acai berries, essential oils and other products.
- The project will also rely on the help of business accelerators and the Rainforest Business School to support so-called bioeconomy start-ups and offer training courses for forest communities under this new development paradigm.

Indonesia’s point man for palm oil says no more plantations in Papua
- The Indonesian minister in charge of investments has declared there will be no new permits approved for oil palm plantations in the country’s Papua region, and that crops such as nutmeg and coffee will instead be prioritized.
- Luhut Pandjaitan, who owns several palm oil companies, said control of existing concessions in Papua was concentrated in the hands of foreign companies and wealthy domestic conglomerates and that their investments hadn’t always benefited the locals.
- Activists are skeptical about the minister’s U-turn, given that Luhut has been the government’s most vocal defender of the palm oil industry amid the growing international backlash against the commodity and its associated environmental damage.
- They also warn that the move might simply replace large-scale deforestation for palm oil with large-scale deforestation for other crops.

A new dawn: The story of deforestation in the next decade must be different to the last (commentary)
- 2020 was to be the year when the bold commitment made by hundreds of companies to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains was met. Instead, the failure to achieve this goal can be measured by the sharp rise in deforestation since 2014.
- Yet despite this bleak picture – and the need to act being more urgent than ever – there’s another story to tell about the last decade.
- It’s the story of how the pledge to eliminate deforestation from supply chains by 2020 was doomed to fail. It’s also – perhaps surprisingly – about the immense journey some companies, NGOs, and institutions have made in that time and how the path to remove the stain of deforestation from the products we consume is now clearer than ever.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Logging, mining companies lock eyes on a biodiverse island like no other
- Woodlark Island sits far off the coast of Papua New Guinea and is swathed in old growth forests home to animals found nowhere else on the planet. However, the island and its unique inhabitants have an uncertain future. Lured by high-value timber, a logging company is planning to clear 40 percent of Woodlark’s forests. Researchers say this could drive many species to extinction.
- The company says logging will be followed by the planting of tree and cocoa plantations, and it has submitted to the government a permit application to clear forests as an agricultural development project. However, an independent investigation found this application process “riddled with errors, inconsistencies and false information” and that the company did not properly obtain the consent of landowners who have lived on the island for generations.
- It is unclear if the application has been approved, but there are signs that the company may be moving forward with its plans.
- Meanwhile, a mining company is pushing forward with its own plans to develop an open-pit gold mine on the island. The mine is expected to result in increased road construction and discharge nearly 13 metric tons of mining waste into a nearby bay.

Cocoa and gunshots: The struggle to save a threatened forest in Nigeria
- Nigeria’s Omo Forest Reserve provides important habitat for animals such as forest elephants, as well as drinking water for the city of Lagos.
- But the reserve has been severely deforested, losing more than 7 percent of its tree cover over the past two decades. Satellite data indicate 2019 may be a particularly bad year for the reserve’s remaining primary forest.
- The primary cause of deforestation in Omo is cocoa farming. Seeking fertile soil and a respite from poverty, the reserve has attracted thousands of small farmers. They’re living in the reserve illegally, but the government is hesitant to evict them as doing so would disrupt their livelihoods and require a significant amount of funding.
- Instead, the focus is on preventing more farmers from invading Omo. This is the goal of rangers who patrol Omo’s remaining forests looking for footprints and listening for chainsaws and gunshots. While they’ve been successful at preventing some encroachment, the reserve is too big for the relatively small team to effectively monitor in its entirety.

New tool helps monitor forest change within commodities supply chains
- With commercial agriculture driving some 40 percent of tropical deforestation, more than 300 major companies involved in the commodities trade have pledged to avoid deforestation in their supply chains.
- To help the companies and financial institutions adhere to these commitments, Global Forest Watch (GFW) has launched a new forest monitoring tool called GFW Pro.
- Using tree cover change information from GFW’s interactive maps, the new desktop application enables users to observe and monitor deforestation and fires within individual farms and supply sheds or across portfolios of properties and political jurisdictions.
- To encourage use by businesses, the new tool presents the information in graphs and charts to companies for easy and regular monitoring, as they might monitor daily changes in stock prices.

Norway divests from plantation companies linked to deforestation
- This week, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global – the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund – released its 2018 holdings.
- Thirty companies were divested from on the basis that they “impose substantial costs on other companies and society as a whole and so are not long-term sustainable.” These “risk-based divestments” appear to include four plantation companies: Olam International, Halcyon Agri Corp, Sime Darby Plantation and Sipef.
- These companies are involved in the production of commodity crops in tropical areas in Southeast Asia, West Africa, and Oceania and have been criticized for destructive land use practices like deforestation.

Smallholder farmers defy cocoa’s production model in Brazil
- Filha do Combu, a family-run chocolate factory in the Amazon makes tree-to-table organic chocolate and is an exception to this model.
- Using an agroforestry system, smallholder farms like Filha do Combu can now produce their own chocolate, which allows them to have more autonomy and control over their quality of life.
- When cocoa is grown within an agroforestry system, it helps preserve the forest by reducing erosion and the use of pesticides, as well as preserving biodiversity.
- However, there is still a lack of support from the public sector for these smallholder farmers.

Traditional groups sowing sustainable crops could save Venezuelan park
- Starting in 2009, Afro-Venezuelan and Indigenous peoples and Phynatura, an NGO, signed a series of conservation agreements which are helping safeguard 570 squares miles of largely pristine forest in the Venezuelan Amazon south of the Orinoco River from illegal mining, timber harvesting and wildlife poaching. In 2017, that area was absorbed into Caura National Park.
- The new park conserves the region’s biodiversity and forests, but its founding didn’t automatically protect the ancestral homelands of the indigenous people living there. However, these 52 indigenous communities in El Caura are claiming a legal right to continue to live and pursue sustainable livelihoods within the park. The government has yet to grant their claim.
- Some of these traditional communities are involved in the sustainable agroforestry livelihood projects, with a variety of innovative crops being grown. Agroforestry is seen by local people as offering an alternative income over mining and deforestation.
- Among non-timber crops grown are tonka (a bean used as a flavoring and in cosmetics), quina (also known as cinchona bark, formerly used to treat malaria and now a common ingredient in cocktails), and copaiba oil (a folk medicinal credited with anti-inflammatory qualities). Cocoa, to be made into fine chocolates, and orchids are included among potential exports.

A most unlikely hope: How the companies that destroyed the world’s forests can save them (commentary)
- In the age of Trump, lamenting the lassitude of governments may be satisfying, but it does little to solve our planet’s foremost existential crisis. It is for this reason that the hopes of billions of people now depend on the very companies most responsible for environmental destruction.
- We’ve come to a pretty sorry pass if we’re depending in significant measure on these corporations to get us out of this mess. But it’s the pass we’re at, and there’s actually reason to hope that the same companies that got us into this mess can get us out.
- In this commentary, Mighty Earth CEO Glenn Hurowitz writes that he feels confident these companies can make a difference because they’ve done it before.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Government regulation is the missing ingredient in efforts to end deforestation driven by agriculture (commentary)
- Despite countless corporate commitments, tropical deforestation for agriculture remains rampant.
- New research reveals that we need government regulation to achieve meaningful results.
- The European Union, a top importer of products that drive deforestation, must take the opportunity to make a difference, writes Nicole Polsterer, Sustainable consumption campaigner at the NGO Fern.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Hunters are wiping out hornbills in Ghana’s forests
- According to a new study, Ghana is losing hornbill species to “uncontrolled” hunting, mostly for meat, from its forested parks and reserves.
- The researchers found that the five largest species of hornbills in the Bia Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have disappeared in recent decades.
- The authors of the paper suggest that increased enforcement will help protect threatened hornbills, as well as other wildlife species, in areas under intense pressure from humans.

The wind of change blowing through Ghana’s villages (commentary)
- For generations, those who lived by Ghana’s forests invariably saw their lives get tougher when timber companies arrived in their areas: access to the forests they relied on was restricted, while the wealth generated from the logging eluded them.
- Overhauling Ghana’s forest laws has meant trying to resolve this through new regulations that require companies to negotiate Social Responsibility Agreements (SRAs) with the communities living within a five-kilometer radius of their logging concessions. Under these agreements, the timber companies must share the benefits of the forests they exploit with the people who live there.
- In the past, any agreements between timber companies and local people would be conducted by the local chief. This left the door open to chiefs enriching themselves by capturing rents at the expense of their communities. But an SRA needs the consent of the entire community, and when people have a voice in the decisions that effect their lives, the power starts to spread.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Chocolate makers agree to stop cutting down forests in West Africa for cocoa
- At COP23, the UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany that wrapped up last week, top cocoa-producing countries in West Africa announced new commitments to end the massive deforestation for cocoa that is occurring within their borders.
- Ivory Coast and Ghana are the number one and number two cocoa-producing nations on Earth, respectively. Together, they produce about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, but that production has been tied to high rates of deforestation as well as child labor and other human rights abuses.
- The so-called “Frameworks for Action” that were announced by the two countries last Thursday not only aim to halt the clearing of forests for cocoa production, especially in national parks and other protected areas, but to restore forest areas that have already been cleared or degraded.

Rainforest Alliance, UTZ announce merger to create single sustainability standard and certification program
- Together, the two NGOs certify some 182,000 cocoa, coffee, and tea farmers around the world.
- The merger will allow those farmers, and any new farmers who choose to work with the future Rainforest Alliance, to perform one audit of their operations rather than two and avoid the administrative workload of having to adhere to two sets of standards and certification systems.
- The merged groups plan to publish a single standard for their unified certification program by early 2019.

Lombok’s blooming community forest bears fruit and raises livelihoods – and haj trips
- In 1997 the land around Santong was practically a dead zone following years of untrammeled exploitation during the rule of General Suharto.
- To address this the community banded together with the local office of the Forestry Ministry and made Santong the pilot site for a community forest program.
- Today, delegations from each of the ASEAN bloc states have visited Santong to study the scheme’s successes.

Consumer choice: Shade-grown coffee and cocoa good for the birds, farmers, ecosystems

A thunderhead builds over a lush agricultural mosaic in a coffee growing region of Ethiopia. Photo credit: Evan Buechley. The next time you order that “wake up” cup of Joe or reach for a sweet treat, you may want to consider whether those coffee or cocoa beans were grown in the shade or open sun. […]
Court rules deforestation of Peruvian rainforest for chocolate was legal

United Cacao didn’t need authorization to clear its plantation near Tamshiyacu, said a court in Loreto, Peru, resolving for the time being one of a series of questions about the legality and environmental sustainability of companies connected with plantations entrepreneur Dennis Melka. Forest along an Amazon tributary near where the controversial Cacao del Peru Norte […]
Chocolate company, NGO work together to save lemurs

Chocolate company collaborates with NGO to conserve Madagascar’s iconic wildlife while helping bolster the prospects of a long-overlooked reserve Madécasse produces chocolate bars from cocoa grown and processed in Madagascar. Photo courtesy of Christi Turner. Madécasse (pronounced “mah-DAY-kas”), which brands itself as an eco-conscious and socially responsible company known for its bean-to-bar-in-Madagascar chocolate,, has teamed […]
Illegal cocoa plantations threaten Côte d’Ivoire’s parks and primates

Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest producer of cocoa, also boasts an ecosystem of great biological richness and species diversity, with over 2,250 endemic plants and 270 vertebrate species. Unfortunately, it also has the highest deforestation rate in all of sub-Saharan Africa, largely due to its rise as a significant player in the global agricultural economy […]
Commodity eco-certification skyrockets, but standards slip

Trends in commodity certification markets Market share for certified commodities. All figures courtesy of IISD’s report The volume of commodities produced under various social and environmental certification standards jumped 41 percent in 2012, far outpacing the 2 percent growth across conventional commodity markets, finds a comprehensive new assessment of the global certification market. The report […]
Bird diversity at risk if ‘agroforests’ replaced with farmland

Çağan Şekercioğlu uses radio equipment to track an orange-billed nightingale-thrush in the Costa Rican countryside. A new study by Şekercioğlu indicates that wooded ‘shade’ plantations where coffee and cacao are grown are better for bird diversity than open farmlands, although forests still are the best habitat for tropical birds. Photo by: Mauricio Paniagua Castro. Agroforests […]
Wealthy consumption threatens species in developing countries

Deforestation of tropical forests for oil palm plantations in Sabah, Malaysia. Palm oil is one of over 15,000 commodities in a recent study that have been linked to biodiversity loss in developing countries connected to consumption abroad. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Consumption in wealthy nations is imperiling biodiversity abroad, according to a new study […]

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