Nestle steps up reforestation project in Ivory Coast

VEVEY, Switzerland

Nestle is stepping up its project to combat deforestation in Ivory Coast caused by the growth of cocoa farming, bringing cocoa trading companies directly on board.

Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, at 40 percent of the global market.

The west African country had 16 million hectares of forest in the 1960s, a figure which is now down to less than three million, mainly due to cocoa plantations.

Nestle, the Swiss food giant behind chocolate brands like KitKat and Smarties, launched a project in 2020 aimed at restoring and protecting the Cavally Forest in southwest Ivory Coast.

One of the last remaining dense forests in the country, Cavally is a biodiversity reserve covering more than 67,000 hectares, but is threatened by deforestation linked to the cocoa industry and illegal gold panning.

The Nestle project was a partnership with the Ivorian government and the Earthworm Foundation, an NGO that led the project's implementation.

At a media briefing last week at its headquarters in Vevey on Lake Geneva, Nestle said the first phase had led to "a significant reduction in deforestation," with the natural regeneration of 7,000 hectares and the reforestation of almost 1,500 hectares.

For its second three-year phase, the Swiss trading company Cocoasource and the French firm Touton, which work directly with cocoa and rubber cooperatives in the area affected, have been brought on board.

The project has a budget of 4 million Swiss francs ($4.45 million).

It aims to strengthen the resilience of the communities on the edge of the forest, and improve the transparency and traceability of the cocoa and rubber supply chain.