by OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria (AP) – Habitat for a dwindling population of Africa’s critically endangered forest elephants is under threat, fueled by the world’s appetite for chocolate.
Deforestation driven by the planting of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is decimating the Omo Forest Reserve, a protected rainforest in south-west Nigeria that helps combat climate change and is one of the world’s largest UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. oldest and largest in Africa. Farmers are expanding into conservation areas where cocoa farming is prohibited, conservation officials say.
The Associated Press spoke with 20 farmers, two brokers and five licensed agents who grow and sell cacao from the reserve to find out where the cacao beans used in holiday sweets are going.
Here are the takeaways from the AP investigation:
COMPANIES GET COCOA FROM THE FOREST
The AP visited the plantations and warehouses of farmers and licensed buying agents who admit to working illegally in the conservation area of the sanctuary. AP also spoke to brokers working in the forest and visited facilities associated with major cocoa trading companies just outside the reserve.
They say they supply Singapore-based Olam Group and Nigeria’s Starlink Global and Ideal Limited, the latter of which supplies cocoa to General Cocoa in the United States.
“We buy from farmers and sell to big companies that export like Olam, Starlink,” said Deborah Fabiyi, manager at Kadet Agro-Allied Investments Limited, a licensed buying agent in the conservation area.
These large trading companies supply Nigerian cocoa to giant chocolate manufacturers like Mars Inc. and Ferrero, but because the chocolate supply chain is so complex and opaque, it’s unclear if cocoa from deforested parts of the Omo Forest Reserve makes it into the sweets they make. , such as Snickers, M&Ms, Butterfinger and Nutella. Mars and Ferrero list farming sources on their websites that are close to or overlap with the forest but do not give specific locations.
In October, AP followed a van loaded with bags of cocoa beans from the conservation zone to the Olam warehouse outside the forest entrance. Olam confirmed that the facility was theirs.
AP also photographed bags of cocoa bearing the names and logo of Olam and Tulip inside farmers’ stores within the conservation zone. In an interview with AP, Starlink admitted that it gets cocoa from the Omo Forest Reserve.
REASONS behind the work
About 1.4 million people in Nigeria, equivalent to about half the population of Nevada, depend on cocoa production for their livelihood, according to the US Agency for International Development. But aging cocoa trees are becoming less productive, pushing farmers into the Omo reserve.
“Deforestation due to cocoa expansion also results from the world’s demand for cocoa to make chocolate,” said Emmanuel Olabode, a conservation manager who oversees the conservancy’s rangers. “It’s astronomical.”
The rangers blame the state government that owns the forest for failing to enforce the law that bans cocoa farming. Several buildings in the conservation zone, including farmers’ houses and warehouses, have been marked for removal by the government, but it has not happened.
The Ogun state government has acknowledged “the danger” of “illegal” cocoa farming in the forest and told AP that it had forcibly evicted the farmers in 2007 before they returned.
WHAT DID THE COMPANIES SAY?
OLAM
The Singapore-based food conglomerate says it has “barred” members of its “Ore Agbe Ijebu” farmers group from “sourcing from protected areas.”
“Any supplier found to be illegally deforesting will be removed from our supply chain,” Olam Food Ingredients, or Ofi, said in a statement to AP, adding that it is “thoroughly investigating.”
The company says it visits each farm to take GPS coordinates and meets with each farmer to agree on often unmarked boundaries.
Farmers who say they sell cocoa from the forest to Olam noted that they are not members of the Ore Agbe Ijebu farming group and have never heard of it.
TULIP
Tulip said it is “confident” its supplies do not come from protected areas. He says his cocoa is certified by the Rainforest Alliance, which checks compliance with sustainability standards, and uses GPS mapping on farms.
Tulip managing director Johan van der Merwe said “field workers” conduct digital sourcing questionnaires with all farmers and suppliers. He also says that tulip cocoa bags are reused and widely distributed so that they can be seen all over Nigeria.
Farmers and buying agents who say they sell cocoa to Tulip told AP they were not required to fill out any questionnaires before buying their cocoa.
STARLINK
The company gets cocoa from the reserve, spokesman Sambo Abubakar told AP. Although Starlink does not make sustainable sourcing claims on its website, it does supply at least one company that does: General Cocoa, a Sucden subsidiary based in Paris in the US.
Starlink has a “traceability program to determine cocoa quality, get to know farmers, and sensitize them on best practices,” Abubakar said.
But this program has not yet been extended to Omo reserve and Ogun state, he said.
FERRERO
Ferrero says its supplies follow “rigorous requirements” that have been independently certified, adding that GPS mapping and satellite monitoring of farms “show that its Nigerian cocoa sourcing does not come from protected forest areas.”
The company that makes Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Baby Ruth, Butterfinger and Crunch bars said cocoa it sources from Ofi through the Ore Agbe Ijebu farming group has been verified by the Union Governing certification body.
The Netherlands-based company said it assessed a sample of farms against Ofi’s own sustainability policies and that “the specific criteria and protocols established in the verification exercise have been set by Ofi.”
Control Union said it would not disclose the results to AP, citing privacy.
MARS
The company says its suppliers follow Mars’ deforestation policy standards and are committed to ensuring “100% of our cocoa is responsibly sourced globally and traceable to the first point of purchase by 2025.”
It says it expects to map farms as part of its Responsible Cocoa program, allowing the company behind Snickers, M&Ms, Dove, Twix and Milky Way to hold suppliers accountable if it is in doubt. deforestation.
Mars says its preliminary results show none of the mapped farms overlap with the reserve.
GENERAL COCOA
Jean-Baptiste Lescop, general secretary of Sucden Group, says the company manages risks to forest conservation by finding Rainforest Alliance cocoa, mapping farms and using satellite images but it is an “ongoing process” because most do not have official land the farmers in Nigeria. ownership documents.
The company investigates reports of problems and is working on a response to the AP findings about Starlink, he said.
SPORT RITER
The German chocolate company sources cocoa from Nigeria and uses Olam but has not disclosed specific locations where its supplies are sourced in Nigeria. He told AP that Olam confirmed that its supplies were outside of deforested forests.
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