Achieving sustainable commodity value chains in Africa: Lessons and perspectives from cocoa

Africa is losing an alarming 3.9 million hectares of forest ecosystems each year. This makes it crucial to create new development pathways to conserve and restore ecosystems, build sustainable food systems and create green jobs for the continent’s youth. There is an important role for green commodities in this equation, including sustainable cocoa, coffee, palm oil, corn, rice and wheat.
In November 2021, the GEF-funded Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR) was launched with the aim of transforming the environmental footprint of agriculture. FOLUR consists of a global knowledge hub and 27 country projects targeting production landscapes for eight major commodities, including cocoa, coffee, corn, livestock, palm oil, rice, soy and wheat.
This plenary at GLF Africa will provide an opportunity for representatives of recently launched FOLUR country projects in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s largest and second-largest exporter of cocoa respectively, to provide insights on their vision for an integrated program working across ministries, sectors and stakeholders. With lessons and perspectives from the cocoa value chain, the session will focus on ways to achieve green and zero-deforestation commodity value chains.