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Nestlé advances its forest positive agenda in cocoa in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

Nestlé has reported progress in its goal to end deforestation in its cocoa supply chain and ensure regenerative supply chains for forests and communities.

It is aligned with its commitment to source 100 per cent of its cocoa sustainably under the Nestlé Cocoa Plan by 2025.

Deforestation remains one of the pressing issues facing the cocoa sector, especially in West Africa. In 2017, Nestlé joined the public-private Cocoa and Forests Initiative to help end deforestation and restore forests in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

In March 2019, the company published a detailed action plan to support these collective efforts.

Over the past three years, Nestlé has been working with the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, its suppliers, its partners and the cocoa farming communities to scale up its actions.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which inevitably impacted certain activities such as mapping the farmers’ lands, farmers’ training, and cookstoves distribution, Nestlé made good progress last year.

So far Nestlé has helped map 85 per cent of the farm boundaries of the 110,000 Nestlé Cocoa Plan farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and distributed over 1,250,000 native forest and local fruit trees in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to make farms more climate-resilient and to diversify farmers’ incomes.

Other achievements include:

  • Distribution of over 2 million high-yielding cocoa trees in Ghana to restore cocoa-growing farms and boost productivity;
  • Helping more than 10 000 people benefiting from financial support through village saving loan associations in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana;
  • Distributing 1 075 more efficient and less polluting cookstoves to reduce pressure on forests and help improve family health in Côte d’Ivoire;
  • Engaging over 4 900 individuals in income-generating projects in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020;
  • Training and sensitization of over 10 000 farmers on the importance of protecting forest and agricultural best practices in 2020.

All these initiatives contribute to Nestlé’s climate actions to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest.

As part of this work, the company is deploying nature-based solutions, like forest conservation and restoration, to absorb more carbon, improve soil health, and enhance biodiversity.

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