Could Your Christmas Chocolate Gift Basket Contribute to Deforestation?

Many people in North America and Europe go on vacation in August, and chocolate is a common souvenir from those trips. I recently received a chocolate gift from a friend who had returned from vacation. It was delicious—who wouldn’t enjoy the heavenly taste of artisanal dark chocolate? But I couldn’t help but wonder if this delicious chocolate was causing deforestation in another part of the world. There was no way to tell from the packaging where it came from or if it was deforestation-free. That realization left me with a bittersweet feeling: an unpleasant cocoa mix in my mouth and the thought of trees being cut down to make this chocolate.

Cocoa, the fruit from which chocolate is made, is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in Ivory Coast and Ghana, two West African countries that produce 70% of the world’s cocoa supply. Meeting that demand has led to the clearing of several acres of forest. A recent study in Nature using satellite imagery found that cocoa plantations caused more than 37% of the forest loss in protected forest areas. Forest areas are sometimes classified as protected because of the exceptional tree and biodiversity diversity in such areas and their cultural value.

Fortunately, there are a number of efforts underway to address the problem of deforestation caused by cocoa plantations, including those by countries, companies, and nonprofits, from commitments to certifications. Of course, there may be areas that need to be worked on to make them more solid, but there is reason to be optimistic. Let’s take a look at some of these positive efforts:

Laws to stop deforestation are being implemented

There is a global commitment to reduce deforestation. At COP 26, 144 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. Motivated by this global commitment, countries are starting to take steps to address deforestation.

Some major chocolate importing regions are introducing new regulations to stop imports from deforested areas. Europe introduced a regulation last year, commonly known as the EUDR (European Union Deforestation Regulation), which is due to come into force in December 2024. Under the new regulation, EU imports must be deforestation-free, meaning they should not contribute to deforestation in the EU or the world. Similarly, the UK has passed an Environment Act that ensures that companies selling their products in the UK confirm that their products do not come from deforested regions. Such regulations are a great step forward! Once these regulations come into force, consumers buying chocolates in these areas will be more confident that what they are buying is deforestation-free.

Unfortunately, not all major chocolate-importing countries have implemented such legislation. For example, the Forest Act, which was intended to curb illegal deforestation, has not yet been passed in the United States. After failing to pass the first time, it was reintroduced in November 2023. This delay continues to contribute to deforestation. Between October 2021 and November 2023, between the first introduction of the act and its reintroduction, direct imports to the U.S. exposed it to 123,000 hectares of deforestation in tropical and subtropical countries. Nonprofits in this space are calling on the United States to urgently implement the Forest Act.

Deforestation-free certifications are becoming more common

Many large companies and nonprofits are taking steps to address deforestation in their cocoa supply chains. They do this through certification labels that signal that their products are sustainably sourced. You might see these certification labels on brands of ice cream or chocolate in the supermarket. For example, in the UK, Magnum chocolate bars—a popular chocolate ice cream bar—have a frog logo on the back cover—the Rainforest Alliance certification seal, indicating that they are deforestation-free and sustainably sourced.

Most certifications have so far been voluntary, giving companies the choice not to certify. This option may explain why only about 20 to 46% of chocolate produced globally is certified to voluntary standards, according to the 2022 Global Market Report on Cocoa. This low number of certifications also means that 1 in 2 chocolate can still be attributed to deforestation. However, despite the low number, it is a significant achievement, as the number has increased from just about 1.5% in 2008.

Some companies may not want to certify because it requires resources and commitment. Certification requires that the beans used to make the chocolate can be traced back to the farm they came from, which is called traceability. Traceability involves robust data collection and monitoring at every point of exchange for cocoa. Full traceability throughout the supply chain is often very difficult. According to a report examining the challenges of traceability in the cocoa sector, even some of the largest companies only have around 40-80% traceability in their supply chain. This means that only a certain percentage of the cocoa beans they source can be traced back to the farm or cooperative from which they were purchased. Critics argue that even in this figure, intermediate suppliers and the first mile of exchange of cocoa sales from farmers to cooperatives are not fully included, so the figure provided by some large companies may not fully reflect sustainable sourcing.

The size of the company also plays a role in understanding the extent to which a company can take steps to track its cocoa supply chain. Taking steps to track its cocoa supply chain may be relatively easier for some larger chocolate companies than for smaller ones. For this reason, it is understandable why smaller companies may need more time to comply with the new regulations. For example, the EUDR rules grant smaller companies an extra year.

As more and more countries introduce such regulations and companies certify their products, the time may soon come when, no matter where you get your chocolate from, you can enjoy it without the guilt of cutting down forests to grow cocoa beans. And who knows, this awareness of sustainability may make the chocolate taste even better!