By RFIPosted on 12-10-2019Modified on 12-10-2019 at 13:30

Since independence in 1960, Côte d'Ivoire has lost 90% of its forest, due to agriculture and in particular the cultivation of cocoa. To face the scourge of deforestation and its environmental and climatic consequences, Côte d'Ivoire adopted last February a new forest code and a new strategy combining afforestation and maintenance of agriculture. To speak about it, diplomats, cocoa operators, private sector and civil society met on Friday, October 11, under the aegis of the European Union ambassador in Abidjan.

The goal of the government is to go from 2 million hectares of forests today to 6 million in 2030 and 8 million in 2045. If the report is unanimous, this strategy at a cost, financial of course but also social. Ivory Coast, the world's largest producer of cocoa , does not want to sacrifice its planters on the altar of reforestation.

" We do not have to choose between the forest and the planter . The planter can coexist with the forest. Forestry can yield as much as agriculture. So it is this new policy, implemented in Côte d'Ivoire, that will demonstrate that the two can coexist without being killer of each other, "said the Minister of Water and Forests, Alain Richard Donwahi .

The environmental and social sustainability of cocoa is now clearly a requirement of consumers who no longer want to be complicit in deforestation or child labor. Ivorian cocoa must adapt, according to the EU's ambassador to Abidjan, Jobst Von Kirchmann.

" We do not want to be a passive partner either and say : here we are not going to consume your product anymore. We also want to be active, that is to say, to help reforest, for example, fight against deforestation or contribute to the sustainability of value chains. It's not just deforestation. It's also the income of the planters, so I think everyone has a role to play, "he said.

However, the day before, the Ivorian Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC) and the Ghana Cocobod threatened to abandon the sustainability programs, dear to the industry, if the commitments on prices to planters were not respected. " We can not pretend that by working for the planter, we invest in sustainability and refuse to pay the planter, " says Yves Koné, director of the CCC.

Next stage of the standoff between the private and the governments: a meeting of the sector in Berlin, in a fortnight.

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