Rainforest Alliance

Farmed on over 18 million acres (7.5 million hectares) of tropical land, cocoa (Theobroma cacao) provides a means of livelihood to an estimated 40 million people, including five million farmers, 90 percent of whom are smallholders, laborers and employees in processing factories. Like coffee, cocoa can be cultivated under the shade of native canopy trees and maintain a landscape similar to natural forest. This helps conserve the habitat of threatened plant and animal species, protect natural pollinators and predators of cocoa pests and create biological corridors that maintain large-scale ecological and evolutionary processes.

Shade trees in an agroforestry system often include other species of economic value, which can reduce risks connected with growing a single crop. However, many farmers have cut forest to open up new fields and grow cocoa more intensively without shade. This approach has short-term benefits on yields but is suitable only for hybrid plants that are increasingly replacing native cocoa. Unfortunately, these hybrid plants require the application of agrochemicals and grow in open fields, which leads to increased erosion and run-off -- reducing soil fertility and contributing to water contamination and health problems.

The Rainforest Alliance, in partnership with cocoa and chocolate companies, public institutions, local organizations and farmer associations, encourages cocoa-farming practices that are sustainable over the long term and maintain a healthy environment and decent working conditions.

Partnerships at Origin

Ecuador

The Rainforest Alliance and its partner Conservación y Desarrollo (C&D) have worked to restore Ecuador's native cocoa heritage since 1997. With support from the German government's Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and other donors and in partnership with Kraft Foods, more than 3,000 cocoa growers in six communities have strengthened their organizations, improved their farming practices, upgraded their drying and fermenting technology and sold Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa at a premium price. The success of the partnership has boosted the revival of traditional practices, which had been in decline since the introduction of sun-grown hybrid plants.

Farmers have learned to properly sort, dry and ferment the beans using a cooperative processing facility, which reduces the number of defective and rotten beans and also preserves the chocolate's antioxidant properties as well as its potassium content. By drying their cocoa using solar- rather than gas-powered dryers and selling their product through a cooperative, with technical assistance from C&D, these farmers have increased their production and lowered their costs, resulting in better living conditions for their families.

Côte d'Ivoire

Also in partnership with GIZ and Kraft, as well as the United States Agency for International Development, ECOM, Armajaro, the Sustainable Tree Crop Program and the Ivorian government's ANADER, the Rainforest Alliance works with over 1,000 farmers in six cooperatives situated in the regions of Issia/Daloa and Abengourou.