Cocoa Cultivation without Forest Loss

The German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa presented options for action towards a deforestation-free cocoa sector at Anuga fair in Cologne. Experts from politics, non-governmental organizations and private sector discussed how the demand for deforestation-free cocoa could be implemented. The demand for state regulation was explicitly found in almost all contributions.

Climate change has arrived in the public consciousness. Conservation of forests, also in cocoa production, is a key factor for this. Between 1988 and 2008, two to three million hectares of forest were destroyed worldwide for the cultivation of cocoa, mainly in West-Africa. "The cocoa sector must no longer be held responsible for deforestation," said Wolf Kropp-Büttner, Board Chair of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO). "The cocoa sector must contribute to ensuring that the forest is preserved and protected.” This is also earmarked in GISCO’s new twelve goals.  

The press release see here.

The new goals of GISCO see here.

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