32 Companies commit to stop cocoa sector deforestation
Thirty - two global chocolate and cocoa companies have given their commitment to develop cooperative, multi-stakeholder framework to help address forest degradation in the cocoa supply chains in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
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In line with that, the companies signed a collective statement of intent in London in March this year to commit to working together to pre-competitively end cocoa related deforestation in the two countries.
The action, led by World Cocoa Foundation, the Prince of Wales International Sustainability Unit (ISU), and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), is dubbed the “Cocoa and Forest Initiative”.
Private sector commitment
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Peter Amewu, who led a delegation on behalf of the government to witness the signing and the launch of the initiative in London, announced this in Accra yesterday at the first consultative meeting on the Cocoa and Forest Initiative.
He said the initiative was a big step forward as the cocoa industry acknowledged the key role cocoa played in tropical deforestation and committed itself to supporting local authorities in fighting the battle against deforestation.
He explained that 12 largest global chocolate and cocoa companies initially signed the statement and agreed to join hands with the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to develop a framework of action to implement interventions that would reduce deforestation caused by cocoa production.
Govt commitment
Since the launch in March this year, Mr Amewu said many companies had signed onto the initiative, bringing the number to 32, indicating the private sector’s commitment to ending forest degradation in the cocoa sector.
Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are the world’s leading producers of cocoa, and many observers point to cocoa farming as a driving force behind the rapid rate of deforestation in both countries.
Considering the fact that cocoa brings high revenue to the government, Mr Amewu said both the government and the private sector had a stake in ensuring that cocoa farmers used sustainable environmental practices that would protect the forest.
“The government will lead this process strongly to ensure that private companies are able to provide complementary resources to enable government to tackle the problem effectively,” Mr Amewu stated.
He reiterated the government’s effort to reverse the ascendancy in the trend of forest degradation in the country and recounted some initiatives by the government to recover the forest belt.
He mentioned the promotion of sustainable mining and reclamation of degraded mined–out landscapes and policy reviews to ensure favourable tree tenure for farmers as some ongoing initiatives by the government to regain the forest cover.
The framework
The Programme Manager of Climate Smart Cocoa of the World Cocoa Foundation, Mr Sander Muilerman, said the agreement built on the cocoa industry’s existing initiatives in partnership with producer country governments to design sustainable cocoa development programmes aimed at improving the livelihoods of the millions of smallholder farmers who grew cocoa.
He further explained that the agreement signed required the participating companies to develop and present a joint public-private framework of action to address deforestation at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP 23) meeting in Bonn in November 2017.
The meeting, which was the first in the series of the multi-stakeholders roundtable meetings, was to solicit the views and inputs of stakeholders in the cocoa and forest sectors which would provide for strategic guidance for the development of the framework of action.
The Deputy Chief Executive Director in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control at the COCOBOD, Dr Yaw Adu Ampomah, said the organisation recognised the role cocoa production played in forest degradation, so it was working to avert the situation.
He lauded the Cocoa and Forest Initiative, saying “it is always important for private sector partnership in dealing with issues that have the potential of improving livelihoods and environmental sustainability.”