Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa exporter, has lost most of its tropical forests in the last half century. Between 2000 and 2019. 2.4 million hectares of forest were cleared for cocoa plantations. As part of a legislative package, lawmakers in the European Union, the world’s largest cocoa buyer, have vowed to import only what doesn’t destroy or degrade forests with a law that would require tracing the bean. A draft law (encompassing palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and derived products like beef, furniture and chocolate) requires companies importing into the EU to guarantee products aren’t produced on land that suffered deforestation after December 31, 2020. There are numerous potential problems, but hopefully ones that can be dealt with adequately.
| In the meantime, Chocolate lovers can learn how chocolate makers compare with each other on efforts to address deforestation, farmer incomes, and use of child labor by checking out Chocolate Scorecard— https://www.chocolatescorecard.com/?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20221220&instance_id=80685&nl=climate-forward®i_id=73809878&segment_id=120377&te=1&user_id=0ed3c9e1d30f8a325170f1082047c267 https://www.france24.com/en/environment/20221206-eu-agrees-to-bans-imports-of-products-that-drive-deforestation |
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| https://beyondgood.com/ |