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Ivory Coast, chocolate giants team up to make cocoa production more sustainable
by rd95

    To halt deforestation, Ivory Coast may be forced to kick out hundreds of thousands of farmers out of forests and find alternative livelihoods for them. To prove the provenance of all cocoa, every smallholder's farm would need to be mapped and every cocoa bean tracked from farm to port.

    But tracing where cocoa comes from is tricky and the supply chain is prone to manipulation. Reports by Mighty Earth and others have shown that cocoa farmed in national parks still ends up being sold by cooperatives to large cocoa traders.

    Certification schemes such as Rainforest Alliance are meant to ensure cocoa sold under the brand has not come from illegal farming in protected forests, but sustainability experts acknowledge the schemes are not foolproof.