Transparency, traceability and deforestation in the Ivorian cocoa supply chain
This report quantifies cocoa-driven deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire and assesses the traceability of the cocoa supply chain. Findings reveal that 46% of deforestation and forest degradation in the region over 2000-2019 was due to cocoa production. Only 43.6% of exports can be traced back to specific cooperatives and departments.
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OVERVIEW
This report quantifies cocoa-driven deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa-producing country, over 2000-2019 using remote-sensing and supply chain data. Cocoa production drove 46% of the deforestation and degradation that occurred over that period, with 2.5 Mha lost at a rate of 166,257 ha/y. A mere 43.6% (95% CI: 42.6 – 44.7%) of 2019 cocoa exports can be traced back to a specific cooperative and department, while 55% of the cocoa remains untraced, either indirectly sourced from local intermediaries or exported by traders.
An evaluation of the state of traceability and transparency in cocoa’s supply chain revealed that the information companies have about their supply chain is disparate, making it challenging to assess where their cocoa is sourced. Endemic to the sector’s sustainability strategy over the past decade has been certification, which leads to many overlaps, redundancies, and double or triple certification of cooperatives. The report stresses that full farm-level traceability, as required by forthcoming EU regulations, is necessary to sustainably source cocoa, considering that almost 60% of the deforestation exposure stems from indirectly sourced and untraced cocoa.
The report identifies the need for the sector to work beyond individual supply chains at the landscape level and collaborate to preserve the remaining stretches of forests in West Africa. The Tragedy of Forestland Sustainability in Postcolonial Africa demonstrated that deforestation could be attributed to land development, politics, and agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire; land development for agriculture, particularly cocoa, emerged as the primary driver of deforestation. Landscape or jurisdictional approaches offer a promising way to internalise indirect sourcing and deforestation drivers beyond cocoa.