Meeting the high demand for sustainable cocoa is going to require greater uptake of agroforestry and for companies to put aside competitiveness and work together in defining and measuring environmental targets.

An article on the blog of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative outlines how just 4 countries – Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Indonesia and Brazil – account for more than 85 per cent of the global cocoa market. Expanding the area under cultivation in these countries is not the answer, as most cocoa growing regions overlap with biodiversity hotspots.

The article suggests 2 key things which are needed to achieve sustainable value chains: investment in cocoa landscapes and a focus on pre-competitive cooperation within the industry.

Agroforestry might well provide the answer to the first challenge as it can “truly help smallholders in the cocoa sector develop farms that generate positive outcomes for sustainable livelihoods, productive crops, and healthy environments,” says the article.

Agroforestry allows farmers to grow a diversity of shade trees, food crops, cocoa and other cash crops. It reduces dependency on high cocoa prices, increases food security and productivity, and can reduce risks associated with pests and diseases.

On the second challenge, the article says “companies need to work together to ensure high-level [biodiversity] indicators are harmonized and cost-effective to monitor, and their commitments are effective”, referring to the need for what it terms ‘Pre-Competitive Private-Private Partnerships’.

The World Cocoa Foundation is making progress in this area through developing a set of biodiversity indicators that 12 major cocoa companies and other value chain stakeholders have endorsed.

Read the full story: Why Commitments Are Not Enough – The Case of Sustainable Cocoa

Read about the Vision for Change partnership between the World Agroforestry Centre and Mars Inc: Building Sustainable Cocoa Communities in Cote d’Ivoire