Deforestation is a major issue in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together produce nearly two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply. Launched In 2017, the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and leading cocoa and chocolate companies, representing 85% of global cocoa usage, joined together to form the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI). Today marks the publication of Barry Callebaut’s second CFI Progress Report, highlighting the contribution we have made to tackle deforestation and our progression towards becoming forest positive by 2025.
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana respectively lost 25% and 8% of primary forest between 2002-20191. With a significant portion of deforestation attributable to cocoa farming expansion, collective action to end cocoa-related deforestation was needed. This is why, at the 2017 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 23), the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana together with leading chocolate and cocoa companies signed the Cocoa & Forests Initiative Frameworks for Action, defining the core commitments and time-bound targets required for a deforestation-free and forest-positive cocoa supply chain.
In 2020, CFI reported on the first two years of implementation (2018 – 2019). At Barry Callebaut, we made substantial progress towards our CFI commitments, which is also supported by our Forever Chocolate plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025. This included activities to improve farmer livelihoods, reforestation and agroforestry activities, and, importantly, the mapping of cocoa farms. This involved our teams on the ground walking farm perimeters of almost 160,000km!
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