2.1.2 Deforestation

Agricultural expansion is the main driver for deforestation, with large scale commercial agriculture (cattle ranching, soy and oil palm production) accounting for 40% of deforestation in the tropics between 2000-2010 and subsistence agriculture accounting for 33% [1]. 

Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. 

The impacts of deforestation include: soil erosion, increased flooding, biodiversity loss, increase greenhouse gas emissions and therefore a driver for climate change.

It has long been acknowledged that cocoa is a driver for deforestation, forests have been cleared to provide more productive land when farmers are faced with aging unproductive cocoa trees, soil degradation, or increased pest and disease pressures. Rates of deforestation in West Africa have risen over the last decade and led to government and private sector commitments to try to end cocoa driven deforestation. 

Public-private initiatives led by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) in Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and IDH-The Sustainable Trade Initiative in Cameroon aim to prevent further deforestation and introduce more sustainable, climate smart approaches to cocoa. During the recent COP26 meeting in Glasgow, the leaders from more than 100 nations committed to stop or reverse the effects of deforestation by 2030.

The picture below, of a felled tree and young cocoa plants in a leading cocoa producing area, illustrates another perspective: “The loss of tropical rain forest is more profound than merely destruction of beautiful areas. If the current rate of deforestation continues, the world’s rain forests will vanish within 100 years causing unknown effects on global climate and eliminating the majority of plant and animal species on the planet” [2].