The thorny path to deforestation-free cocoa

Evagle Jean Desire was arranging his farm tools on a Saturday morning in July when we arrived at his compound in Kikot, a small village in the Sanaga Maritime Division of the Littoral region. He had come back early from the farm that day to attend a farmers’ association meeting in the locality.

"We now meet every Saturday, because our challenges are coming for diverse sectors," said Desire, president of ASPACZOBA (Association des producteur de cacao de la zone de barrage, or 'the Association of cocoa producers of the dam zone'), a Cameroonian  civil organisation of persons impacted by the The Kikot Hydro Power Project.

The project, which is Cameroon's second major hydroelectric venture, is situated approximately 60 kilometres northwest of Yaoundé, the political capital, on the Sanaga River, near the border between the Center and Littoral regions. It spans the Sanaga Maritime Division in the Littoral region as well as the Nyong and Kelle and Lekie Divisions in the Centre region.

Constructed by the Kikot-Mbebe Hydro Power Company SA, the project was officially launched on 9 September, 2022. It features a 95-metre-high dam and a water reservoir, alongside a hydroelectric plant expected to generate around 1,000 MW of power. The construction affects 18 cocoa-producing villages and will likely displace over 170 smallholder cocoa farmers.

The villages have been earmarked and mapped for gradual destruction as the hydroelectric project progresses. Mbebe will be the first locality affected, as the company's head office is about to be established there. The project's commissioning is expected by 2030.

At a time when cocoa prices are witnessing a significant increase, smallholder cocoa farmers in Cameroon are hopeful for brighter days ahead.

According to the National Cocoa and Coffee Board, the current price of cocoa in Cameroon is 5,156 francs CFA per kilogramme, a significant increase from the 1,500 francs CFA per kg that was the standard last year. This price spike is largely attributed to a notable decline in cocoa bean production by major suppliers, which has driven up demand and, consequently, prices.

However, those around the Kikot Hydro Power Project are facing nightmares as they grapple with the impending displacement and destruction of their communities. "We have officially been notified that our farms will be destroyed anytime soon," Desire said. 

"The Kikot traditional palace will be completely covered by the water reservoir," Song Pierre, Secretary of the Kikot palace, told FairPlanet. "Even the Kikot Island, one of the rarest in Cameroon, would disappear."

like 'pigs in a fence'

The smallholder cocoa farmers affected by the Kikot Project were already grappling with the challenges posed by the dam when they were confronted with another significant hurdle: the new European Union Deforestation-Free Regulations (EUDR). These regulations prohibit the sale of products, including cocoa, on the EU market unless they can verify that the products were not grown on land deforested or degraded after 31 December, 2020.

This adds another layer of complexity and concern for these farmers, who now face both the threat of displacement and the potential market restrictions due to these stringent new regulations.

"When we visited the locality between September and November 2023, most of the farmers had never heard of the EUDR," said Bonny Mfoulou, a researcher at Green Development Advocate (GDA), a Yaoundé-based NGO.

The news about the new cocoa standards shocked the farmers, who feel they are being controlled like "pigs in a fence." Their frustration stems from the fact that EDF Cameroon, the company responsible for the preliminary design of the dam, is encouraging them to create new cocoa farms, yet most of the available land for this expansion lies within forest zones.

As of this reporting, farmers and EDF are still in discussions about compensation and resilience issues. The encouragement to create new cocoa farms was reportedly given during one of their sessions.

However, farmers in Kikot have expressed frustration over the contradictory messages from key cocoa industry actors, making it difficult for them to know the right course of action.

"EDF is promising to compensate us with cocoa seeds and finances to set up new farms with a follow up of up to two years, and the European Union is against the creation of new farms in forest areas, what are we now supposed to do?" lamented Desire.

Another farmer mentioned that "the Inter Professional Cocoa and Coffee Board and the government of Cameroon are encouraging the expansion of shade-grown cocoa cultivation in areas where the only land available to prospective farmers appears to be forest."

Desire added, "We will continue to cut the forest, because there are currently no concrete alternatives.

"With severe youth unemployment across the country, some young people are now turning to cocoa farming as a way for making a living. There is concern that if the area under cultivation is not permitted to expand into new forest areas, there will be less livelihood prospects for young people in rural Cameroon." 

In Cameroon, cocoa is predominantly grown under the shade of forest trees, but the European Union considers these as deforested farms under its deforestation-free regulations. Cocoa farming is deeply intertwined with the livelihoods of many, as highlighted in a document shared by civil society organisations during a workshop in Yaoundé and reviewed by FairPlanet.

According to the document, approximately half a million Cameroonian households depend on the cocoa sector, which is the country's second most important export.

Facing the challenges

Cocoa cultivation is the backbone of survival for many farmers in Cameroon, and prohibiting its expansion into forests feels to many like a sentence to perpetual poverty. Local farmers are not taking this challenge lightly. Organisations like GDA and other civil society groups are stepping in to assist the farmers in their fight for corporate accountability and ensure their livelihoods are protected.

One of the first actions taken by farmers around the Kikot project was to form an association of those impacted by the project. This association was established in early 2023 following a working session with GDA, allowing the farmers to organise collectively and address the challenges posed by the project.

"We had to visit farmers in other areas who have suffered from similar dam projects to tap from their experience in facing such challenges," Desire, the associations president, said.

Leaders of the association continue to attend meetings with civil society organisations involved in the cocoa sector as well as with EDF Cameroon.

"We have been trained by EDF on how to maximise our existing plantations and achieve more yields," Eloga Thierry, Secretary General of ASPACZOBA, said.  

The association is now working to sensitise its members on properly understanding the EUDR and determining the way forward. The president of the association notes that they have identified close to 200 cocoa farmers, but not all have joined, prompting ongoing awareness-building efforts.

Farmers appear to be particularly concerned about the status of cocoa grown on already degraded forest land (before December 2020), and fallow plantations, questioning how long it will take for such land to be reconsidered as forest under the new regulations.

The various steps taken by ASPACZOBA align with current cocoa initiatives in the country. The future dynamics of Cameroon's cocoa sector are being considered within these interconnected processes in an attempt to ensure that the association's actions are in step with broader efforts to address challenges and opportunities within the industry.

Since 2021, the government of Cameroon and the European Union have engaged in a series of bilateral discussions known as "Cocoa Talks." These talks aim to ensure forest restoration in cocoa-producing regions while addressing issues such as child labor and exploitation within the cocoa value chain.

The government of Cameroon is also promoting a public-private partnership known as the "IDH Roadmap to Deforestation-Free Cocoa," which aims to eliminate cocoa-related deforestation in the country. Both the Cocoa Talks and the IDH roadmap are viewed locally as integral to the development of a National Action Plan on sustainable cocoa, aligning efforts across multiple sectors to address environmental and ethical concerns in the cocoa industry.

In 2023, a new initiative was launched to support the "inclusive transition to sustainable, deforestation-free, and legal supply chains." It aims to enhance stakeholder coordination and provide technical assistance and capacity building for commodity-producing governments impacted by the EUDR. It is designed to help these governments adapt to new regulations and ensure compliance with sustainable practices in their supply chains.

Launched by the European Union Commission during COP28, the initiative's key challenge so far is that smallholder cocoa farmers are not typically included in most of the sessions for discussion. As a result, many of these farmers are not fully informed about or familiar with the initiatives, limiting their ability to adapt to the new regulations and benefit from the support provided.

The path forward

The Green Development Advocate believes that enacting a rigorous deforestation-free cocoa standard in an unclear local context is very complex. Therefore, the organisation advocates for the government to actively promote local initiatives that develop cocoa transformation and value-adding activities in the cocoa sector.

"The European Union should work alongside the government of Cameroon to conduct a farmers need analysis regarding the EUDR, and use the results to tailor the work of the Team Europe Initiative on deforestation-free value chain," said Bonny Mfoulou from GDA.

The organisation calls on Cameroon's Ministry of Forest and Wildlife to clarify the status of agroforestry and fallow lands in the guidelines on agricultural use being prepared by the European Commission.

On 4 July, 2024, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessie, Cameroon's Minister of Public Works, and Christophe Avognon, general manager of the Kikot-Mbebe Hydro Power Company SA, held a meeting in Yaoundé to discuss and plan collaboration strategies for ensuring the effective execution of the hydroelectricity project.

Image by Louvier Kindo Tombe.