Cocoa & Forests Initiative reports progress on traceability, agroforestry and forest protection in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire

• Côte d'Ivoire planted more than 28 million trees for the purpose of forest regeneration. Ghana restored 9,488 ha of degraded forest and helped 4,302 farmers to register 50,344 forest trees;
• Cocoa and chocolate companies distributed 11.3 million non-cocoa trees for the development of agroforestry in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and have reached a stable 72% traceability in their direct supply chains;
• Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire have reached new milestones in traceability: The government of Côte d'Ivoire has mapped 1 million farmers with 3.2 million ha of cocoa farms. In Ghana a total of 515,762 farmers owning 845,635 farms have been registered in the national Cocoa Management System, accounting for 72 percent of the total cocoa area.

UTRECHT,  The Netherlands, July 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and 35 companies in the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI), including IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), today reported progress made towards ending deforestation in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana in two joint public/private sector reports.

Actions in 2021 included more development of agroforestry with the distribution of 11.3 million non-cocoa trees by cocoa and chocolate companies in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. This brings the total number of multi-purpose trees supplied by the private sector since the launch of CFI to 21.7 million. In both countries, companies reached on average 72% traceability in their direct supply chains. Companies are also investing in large scale farmer training for better livelihoods and less incentive to encroach into forests.

Governments' efforts have focused on the further development of national cocoa traceability systems and forest monitoring. In Ghana, a total of 515,762 farmers have been enumerated into the Cocoa Management System, owning 845,635 farms in the Western South, Ashanti, and Central regions of Ghana. Côte d'Ivoire has mapped more than 1 million farmers 3.2 million ha of cocoa farms. The satellite forest monitoring tool IMAGES was adopted by the Ivorian CFI signatories. Based on IMAGES it was observed that in the cocoa belt forest cover disturbance almost halved compared to the previous year.

All signatories invest in reforestation. The government of Côte d'Ivoire, with the Ministry of Water and Forests (MINEF) in the lead, has planted over 28 million trees in the past year, which accounts for almost one tree per capita. This includes the 3.5 million trees planted by Le Conseil Café Cacao as part of its new program to achieve the planting of 60 million trees on cocoa farms by 2024. In Ghana, under the leadership of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MNLR), authorities were directly involved in the restoration of 9,488 ha of degraded forest and the distribution of 5.297.739 multi-purpose tree seedlings by both the public and private sector.

Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire are looking to accelerate public private collaboration to preserve primary forests and to foster reforestation in protected areas. This includes a further scaling of the public private partnerships for the preservation of selected primary and secondary forests in Côte d'Ivoire. This comes in addition to the Memoranda of Understanding which were signed between MINEF and cocoa companies, now bringing the area under public-private protocols for the conservation and restoration of category III classified forests to 666,081 ha. In Ghana, seven additional companies signed onto agreements in the collaboratively identified priority Hotspot Intervention Areas (HIA) landscapes of Asunafo, Bia-Juabeso, and Atwima.

Quote Ghana: "The story of CFI is an interesting one and a lot has been invested over the past years for its implementation. The Green Ghana Project I launched in 2021 will augment the effort of CFI to restore our degraded forest reserves and off-reserve landscapes." 

Quote Côte d'Ivoire: "The observed decrease in deforestation in Côte d'Ivoire is a positive signal. The government does everything possible to completely end deforestation in the coming years. The slowing down of deforestation can be attributed to the many ongoing actions and programs, including the Cocoa & Forests Initiative."

Quote WCF: "We must continue to strive for complete provenance of all cocoa no matter where it is grown or by whom. It cannot be acceptable that any cocoa that is linked to deforestation finds its way to consumer countries.Additionally, farmers must be rewarded and benefit from the traceability protocols that make this possible. We look forward to the next phase of Cocoa & Forests Initiative that will bring us closer to this goal."

Quote IDH: "As we learn more about deforestation trends, we see that it is crucial that signatories maintain the current level of ambition and build on CFI's significant track record of public-private collaboration. Through our convening role, we look forward to contributing to key milestones such as the joint investments in forest preservation, the roll-out of the national traceability systems and assuring community engagement"

About the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI)
CFI is a joint partnership of the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and 35 cocoa and chocolate companies facilitated by IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BUZA), the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Partnership for Forests (P4F) through the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank. Cocoa and chocolate companies and governments collaborate within the framework of CFI with other stakeholders such as NGOs, farmer organizations and civil society organizations on the development and implementation of business-driven solutions.

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SOURCE Cocoa & Forests Initiative