LocationsGhana: Sustainable Cocoa
Ghana is the second largest cocoa producer in the world, contributing to 25% of global cocoa production. Coupled with Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana makes up one of the most prominent West African nations that deliver the majority of the world’s cocoa supply.
Despite the critical role Ghana plays in providing the key ingredient to the sweet worldly indulgence, however, the country is in serious risk of decreased cocoa productivity down the road.
A 2011 baseline environmental study conducted in the national sector showed that while cocoa production has intensified over the last three decades, it is a result of significant forest loss due to the promotion of zero shade systems and movements of the timber sector. It is widely recognised that such phenomenon has gradually contributed to the following ramifications:
- fragmentation of forest landscapes
- loss of wildlife corridors and connectivity
- degradation of biodiversity
- and loss of ecosystem goods & services
Besides the damages the current state of affairs is bringing about in the Ghanaian cocoa producing communities, one of the more prominent consequences of deforestation is the loss of major soil nutrients. Such phenomenon has ultimately become the leading cause of declined national cocoa production yield.
Evidently, the cocoa landscape demands a sustainable approach, one that will salvage the sector from the high-impact business-as-usual scenario to one which may ultimately help sustain Ghana’s vantage as a major global producer.
In response to the challenges posed by the Ghanaian sector, the UNDP Green Commodities Programme (GCP) has been working with Mondelēz International to deliver a set of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on the ground. Within its 11-year-old Cocoa Life project, Mondelēz collaborates with GCP to implement its key agenda items in one of three domains of the initiative: environmental sustainability.
At first glance, the Mondelēz partnership may seem quite distinct from the rest of GCP’s global operations portfolio which, after all, is characterized by the multi-stakeholder approach. While, in this case, GCP works exclusively with Mondelēz as its private sector partner, the work in Ghana is, in fact, a different way to nonetheless engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration for systemic change. By bringing to table the largest cocoa buyer in the world with the Ghanaian government, GCP offers its ability to procure a diverse set of technical expertise gained throughout its extensive global portfolio of cocoa producing regions. Also, suffice it to say that Mondelēz owns and manages major commercial brands such as Cadbury, Dairy Milk, Milka, Côte d’Or, and Lacta, just to name a few.
That said, GCP helps Mondelez achieve the following agenda items:
- mainstream good agricultural practices focused on environmental conservation
- re-introduce shade in cocoa production (facilitating the planting of 1.3 million trees up to date)
- support the establishment of CREMA, a community-level landscape management structure, in 39 communities in the Atobiase landscape
- and establish rigid policies regarding tree tenure rights, thereby providing ownership for the trees that producers plant for shade
Being the largest private sector cocoa sustainability initiative, Cocoa Life will continue to work towards its goal of investing $400 million to its efforts by 2022. By doing so, it aims to empower at least 200,000 cocoa farmers and reach one million members of the producing communities.
2020 being the last year of GCP’s implementation phase in Ghana, we are confident that Cocoa Life will continue to transform the sector beyond the foreseeable future. We believe that the work of Cocoa Life will ultimately bring about sustainability to not just the agricultural crop itself, but also to the countless livelihoods throughout the vast Ghanaian cocoa landscapes.
In-Country Team
Ayirebi Frimpong, Environment Focal Point: ayirebi.frimpong@undp.org
Paolo Dalla Stella, Specialist: paolo.d.stella@undp.org