As chocolate prices soar following decades of deforestation, adoption of agroforestry is essential (commentary)

deleciousfood | June 26, 2024 | Chocolate | No Comments

It has been reported that climate change is the reason for record chocolate prices, but what has received less attention is the root cause of the problem.
Chocolate is more expensive today because of decades of deforestation by the cocoa industry in West Africa, where much of the world’s supply is grown, earning it the nickname “cannibalistic commodity.”
“The good news is that chocolate companies and producing governments can still solve the problem. To contain the impacts of past deforestation and promote predictability of production, they must transform all existing monoculture cocoa into shade-grown cocoa or agroforestry,” a new editorial states.
This article is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

If you’re a chocoholic, you may have noticed that the price of cocoa has skyrocketed recently. Cocoa prices on the world market, which averaged around $2,500 over the past decade, have reached $10,000 per tonne. This is the highest in history. Experts estimate that it is likely to remain above $5,000/tonne for at least the next 16 months.

You may have also read that global warming is behind the recent price surge, with weather anomalies hitting cocoa farms hard.

What gets less attention is the root cause of the problem.

Although weather anomalies are worsened by global warming, their real cause is largely local deforestation, specifically the clearing of forests to make way for cocoa plantations.

Map of deforestation in Ivory Coast.

Cocoa is a “cannibalistic commodity.” Its production has destroyed the forests that allowed it to thrive. Today, amid the rubble of once spectacular tropical jungles, cocoa plantations are struggling.

While working for the NGO Mighty Earth, I revealed a shocking scandal: Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producing country, has lost 94% of its forests since 1990. Côte d’Ivoire is not not a footnote to the chocolate industry. : it is the world’s leading cocoa producing country. In Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer, 80 to 90% of forests were destroyed at the same time. About a third of deforestation in both countries was for cocoa.

Forests are essentially rain machines: they kill the forests and the rains go haywire. Without forests, you lose the precipitation they make possible. You lose the ability of forests to protect agricultural systems like cocoa from droughts by keeping soils moist. The air humidity generated by forests also disappears.

Additionally, you lose the cooling effect of forests, which keeps the air cool and humid, protecting nearby agricultural systems (like cocoa) from heat domes. Have you ever walked in a forest and felt a delicious damp coolness caress your skin? Imagine losing that on an epic scale. Imagine losing 94% of a country’s forests.

See Mongabay’s full coverage of agroforestry here.

This forest reserve has been heavily invaded by cocoa cultivation (as seen in the foreground here in 2017). The Ivorian government now intends to increase the tree cover in these reserves through agroforestry. Photo courtesy of Cathy Watson/CIFOR-ICRAF. — A forest reserve in Ivory Coast heavily encroached by cocoa cultivation. The Ivorian government has announced its intention to increase tree cover in these reserves through agroforestry. Photo courtesy of Cathy Watson/CIFOR-ICRAF.

Forests don’t just save us when it’s hot or dry. They also help when it’s too humid. Acting like giant sponges, they suck up large quantities of water, protecting agricultural systems like cocoa from storms, floods or unusually intense rainy seasons.

Largely driven by cocoa, deforestation in West Africa has ravaged rain cycles, and today we are reaping the whirlwind of it with poor harvests. The result was a dwindling supply of cocoa, which triggered panic and speculation, particularly by “non-commercial traders” on the futures markets, and then a spike in prices. A 10% cocoa shortage caused global cocoa prices to increase by a factor of more than four (+300%), with speculation a common factor in commodity markets during periods of price spikes.

But the fact is that chocolate costs more today because for decades the cocoa industry destroyed West Africa’s forests. If we don’t change course, shortages will only get worse and chocolate prices will only rise.

The good news is that chocolate companies and producing governments can still solve the problem. To do this, they must halt all future deforestation from cocoa – a particularly crucial task now that high prices risk triggering a production boom, with poor farmers rushing to take advantage of high prices by replacing the last remaining forests with cocoa.

Farmers and ICRAF staff in a cocoa plot where an Akpi sapling (foreground) was planted as part of an emerging agroforestry system. It grows well but will take time to break through the cocoa tree canopy and provide shade and other services. Photo courtesy of Gilberte Kofi/CIFOR-ICRAF — Farmers work with World Agroforestry staff in a cocoa plot where a young Akpi tree (foreground) has been planted as part of a nascent agroforestry system. It will eventually break through the canopy of the cocoa tree and provide shade and other services. Photo courtesy of Gilberte Kofi/CIFOR-ICRAF.

To limit the effects of past deforestation and promote predictability of production, they must transform all existing cocoa monocultures into shade-grown cocoa or agroforestry. Agroforestry systems weave trees into and around cocoa, instead of monoculture where farms consist of an uninterrupted sea of cocoa. Although agroforestry cocoa will never stabilize rainfall as well as forests, it works much better than a monoculture.

If this sounds like a tree-hugging fantasy to you, think again. Almost all major chocolate companies have started moving towards agroforestry pilot projects thanks to recent civil society campaigns. Smithsonian experts, who are not foaming activists, have created a gigantic electronic library of all the peer-reviewed science on cocoa agroforestry. Thanks to this library and industrial pilot projects, we know how to move from monoculture to agroforestry.

What the industry is lacking so far is the will to change, which could help save our chocolate and our planet. It’s the only one we have! (Sorry Elon.)

Etelle Higonnet previously served as a senior advisor at the National Wildlife Federation, addressing deforestation, and before that, campaign director at Mighty Earth, focusing on zero deforestation advocacy, with an emphasis on cocoa, palm oil, rubber, livestock and soybeans. Industries.

Banner image: Chocolate pastries. Image by Chris Hardy via Unsplash.

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