Mar 16, 2017
Chocolate and cocoa groups vow to end deforestation
The world's largest chocolate makers, including Nestlé, Mars and Mondelez, and cocoa traders such as Cargill and Olam, have agreed to co-operate in ending deforestation in key cocoa growing areas, starting with the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Barry Parkin, head of sustainability at Mars who chairs the World Cocoa Foundation, which promotes sustainability in the cocoa sector, said the companies came together a year ago and now have six months to form a detailed action plan. Groups that have signed up to the initiative include Ferrero, Hershey, Barry Callebaut and Ecom, as well as non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace, and the governments of the Ivory Coast and Ghana, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. "The vast majority of cocoa grown by farmers over the past 30 years has been on land where the forest was destroyed to plant cocoa trees. Critics of the cocoa and chocolate industries point to cocoa farming as a driving force behind rapid rates of deforestation in both countries. With much of the world's cocoa coming from small-scale growers in developing countries, supporting communities and making cocoa production an attractive proposition for the younger generation has been regarded as key to securing sustainable supplies.
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