The world’s top cocoa producer, Cote d’Ivoire, has announced plans to invest nearly one billion euros over 10 years to replace forests that were razed to grow cocoa beans.
The West African country supplies two million tons of cocoa to the world market annually and the commodity is a mainstay of its economy.
An NGO known as Mighty Earth, had alleged in its report last year that “many of the country’s national parks and conservation lands have been cleared of their forest to make way for cocoa operations to feed demand from large chocolate companies such as Nestle, Cadbury, and Mars.”
Ivorian Minister for Water and Forests, Alain-Richard Donwahi, told foreign donors that the government would spend about one million euros in afforestation programs. Donwahi assured that “Between now and 2030 we will recover 20 percent of our lost forest cover. That is our commitment”.
The Minister said the project would involve both public and private partnerships, pointing out that policy would be changed to ensure “that cocoa production does not destroy forests but actually helps to preserve them.”
He warned that the government would identify illegal cocoa plantations tucked away in forests and destroy them, declaring that 500,000 tonnes of cocoa were produced in such zones.
