Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire have reached new milestones in traceability. 

The Côte d’Ivoire government has mapped 1 million farmers with 3.2 million hectares of cocoa farms. 

While in Ghana, 515,762 farmers owning 845,635 farms have been registered in the national Cocoa Management System, accounting for 72 percent of the total cocoa area. 

That’s according to a new report from the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI), which is made up of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and 35 companies. The report details the CFI’s progress toward ending deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

More than 28 million trees also were planted in Côte d’Ivoire for the purpose of forest regeneration. Meanwhile, Ghana restored 9,488 hectares of degraded forest and helped 4,302 farmers to register 50,344 forest trees.

“The observed decrease in deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire is a positive signal,” the government of Côte d’Ivoire said. “The government does everything possible to completely end deforestation in the coming years. The slowing down of deforestation can be attributed to the many ongoing actions and programs, including the Cocoa & Forests Initiative.”

Private sector also makes strides

When it comes to the private sector, cocoa and chocolate companies distributed 11.3 million non-cocoa trees in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The two countries also have reached a stable 72 percent traceability in their direct supply chains. 

Companies also are investing in large-scale farmer training for better livelihoods and less incentive to encroach into forests.

About the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) 

CFI is a partnership of the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and 35 cocoa and chocolate companies facilitated by: IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF). The CFI also has  support from: the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BUZA); the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO); Partnership for Forests (P4F) through the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); the US Agency for International Development (USAID); and the World Bank. 

Cocoa and chocolate companies and governments collaborate within the framework of CFI with other stakeholders such as NGOs, farmer organizations and civil society organizations on the development and implementation of business-driven solutions.

To read the full report, visit the CFI website.