The Managing Campaigner for EcoCare Ghana, Mr. Obed Owusu-Addai has stated that Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire stand the chance of risk losing cocoa production due to consistent deforestation.
According to him the two countries are estimated to have lost between 80% and 90% of their forest reserves over the few decades to cocoa production.
According to a report released by Mighty Earth, a global advocacy organization working to defend a living plant, indicates that Africa’s top cocoa-producing nations continue to see huge areas of forest being destroyed to make room for cocoa farms a situation it describes as unstainable.
The report dubbed ‘Sweet Nothing; How the Chocolate Industry has Failed to Honor Promise to end Deforestation in Cocoa Supply Chains,’ reveals that in 2019 alone, Ghana lost 39,497 hectares of it forest cover to cocoa production while Cote d’Ivoire also lost 19,421.
Mr. Owusu-Addai said through a combination of satellite data analysis and on-the-ground field investigations, Mighty Earth and EcoCare Ghana have uncovered evidence of ongoing tropical forest clearance for cocoa in designated protected areas that provided vital habitat for wildlife such as chimpanzees and pygmy hippos.
He said the situation is worse today as deforestation remain a record high in Ghana in 2020 with a tree cover loss of 370% higher since January 2019 than it was between 2001 to 2010 and 150% higher than the average tree cover loss between 2011 to 2019 while the tree cover lost in Cote d’Ivoire in 2019 was 230% higher than it was between 2001 to 2017 and 340% higher than the average loss during the 2000s.
“Deforestation is still found throughout protected areas in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana but complained of lack of transparency, accountability and willpower in the two countries cocoa bodies to investigate the happening and profess adequate solution,” he stated.
Mr. Owusu-Addai said it is time chocolate producing companies, cocoa traders, the governments in the two countries be held accountable to hold an open and transparent joint deforestation monitoring mechanism in 2022 to prevent forest encroachment for cocoa expansion as well as target initiatives of small holder farmers.
He said leading chocolate companies and cocoa traders should play an active role in the restoration of the degraded forests and biodiversity in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire by at least sourcing for 50% of their cocoa agroforestry by 2025.
The government of Cote d’Ivoire should quickly work to confirm the boundaries of protected areas and stop any new deforestation by involving in a transparent manner, communities and civil society organizations in their monitoring.
In ghana, the Forestry Commission together with Ghana Cocoa Board, need to ensure that emerging Cocoa Management System which intended to trace the supply chain is transparent so stakeholders will have the trust in the data that it will produce.
Mr. Owsus-Addai suggested that consumers of cocoa products such as the Europeans, Japan and the United States should introduce a legislation that requires companies to conduct thorough due diligence checks to prevent cocoa or cocoa-derived products linked to deforestation from being imported into their consumer markets.
He, therefore called on the Cocoa and Forest Initiative to deliver on their promise of ending deforestation in the cocoa producing countries and charged on cocoa chocolate companies to also protect the environment.
