Every year, US citizens collectively consume 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate. While this sweet and indulgent treat is a staple for Valentine’s Day and Halloween, its colorful and shiny packaging conceals the darker consequences of cocoa production and trade. Historically, cocoa beans were symbols of wealth in Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Today, global demand for cocoa and chocolate has led to a dramatic increase in chocolate production, threatening the environment and human rights. Cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, ranks among the highest carbon-emission foods in the world and has significantly contributed to deforestation, pollution, climate change, and loss of habitat and biodiversity. Most of this cocoa is produced in West Africa, which grows 70 percent of the world’s cocoa beans due to its ideal warm and tropical climate conditions. In addition, the cocoa industry faces severe human rights issues, including child labor and forced labor driven by extreme poverty. Cocoa farmers earn as little as US$0.78 per day, far below the World Bank's extreme poverty threshold of US$1.90 per day.
Environmental Impacts: How Chocolate Production Contributes to Global Climate Change
The average 40-gram bar of milk chocolate carries a carbon footprint of approximately 200 grams. The carbon footprint of dark chocolate can rise up to 300 grams for a bar due to the higher cocoa content. This massive carbon footprint of chocolate results from an accumulation of many different processes.
First, similar to cattle farming, chocolate production requires a substantial amount of land and water. Each kilogram of chocolate requires 10,000 liters of water, and the land-use change associated with cocoa cultivation multiplies its global warming potential (GWP) by three to four times. In fact, hectares of land are increasingly being converted into cocoa farms in West Africa due to increasing demand, often at the expense of forests. For example, since Côte d’Ivoire gained independence in 1960, approximately 90 percent of its rainforests have vanished due to cocoa cultivation.
In addition, the significant energy and raw materials required for chocolate transportation and manufacturing result in high greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to the Blanket Effect, trapping the sun’s heat and raising global temperatures. This global increase in temperature can lead to more extreme weather events such as wildfires, heavy rain, flooding, and tropical storms.
Moreover, the processing of chocolate leads to water source pollution and soil degradation. Pesticide and fertilizer use within the cocoa industry is extremely high due to the susceptibility of cocoa plants to diseases; these chemicals can easily contaminate water sources if not properly contained. This contamination severely harms local aquatic wildlife and animals who drink from these sources. Chocolate production has also led to considerable deforestation as the rising demand for cocoa has led to aggressive land clearance in cocoa-growing regions. From 2001 to 2023, Ghana lost 24 percent of its total tree coverage; Côte d’Ivoire, 26 percent. Younger cocoa trees have a higher production rate than older trees, prompting many farmers to clear older forests to plant new trees. This process further exacerbates deforestation, especially in Côte d’Ivoire. Land clearing increases emissions by releasing the carbon stored in forests; it also causes soil degradation, including the loss of organic matter, acidification, and loss of biodiversity.
Human Rights Issues: Child Trafficking and Slavery Within the Chocolate Industry
In West Africa, many children start working at cocoa farms to support their families amidst impoverished conditions. In some communities, children harvest cocoa on family-owned farms. However, in many other cases, children are either lured by the promise of good pay (to financially support their families) or are trafficked into this industry by their families who often do not know of or understand the harsh working conditions.
In some cases, children are abducted from neighboring countries like Burkina Faso and Mali to work on cocoa farms. For instance, in one village in Burkina Faso, nearly every mother has had a child trafficked into cocoa farming. Additionally, on many of these farms, individuals have reported working up to 14 hours a day; laborers must carry heavy loads and engage in dangerous (and sometimes life-threatening) tasks such as clearing forests with chainsaws. They are also subjected to physical abuse by farm operators for working too slowly, violating many international labor laws and UN conventions. Child laborers’ demographics consist mainly of 12 to 16-year-olds with some as young as five years old. 40 percent of these child laborers are girls, and around 30 percent (of child laborers specifically in Côte d’Ivoire) do not attend school. This lack of education from a young age perpetuates the cycle of poverty, as these children will have fewer opportunities for higher-paying jobs once they reach adulthood.
While child labor laws exist in West African countries, including Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire–setting benchmarks such as a minimum working age–child labor continues within the cocoa production industry despite these regulations. These regulations contend with local customs and economic hardships. In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana alone, 1.56 million children are subjected to child labor on cocoa farms. This exploitation reflects broader trends of exploitation across the continent: 72.1 million African children are child laborers, as of 2020.
Case Study: Côte d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire produced 2.24 million tons of cocoa beans in crop year 2022/2023, making it the world’s largest producer of cocoa, accounting for a third of the annual global supply. While this industry accounts for up to 20 percent of Côte d’Ivoire’s GDP, it also makes Côte d’Ivoire one of the major hotspots in West Africa for slavery, child trafficking, and human rights violations. Many International Labour Organization (ILO) Child Labor Standards are violated here, including those regarding access to education. Although laws passed in 2015 made school mandatory for all children up to age 16 and prohibited children younger than age 16 from working, conditions for child laborers on cocoa farms have seen little improvement. Investigations in the region reveal that both parents and children struggle to access education. One in four children who enroll in primary school in Côte d’Ivoire drop out, and child cocoa laborers are even more likely to drop out than other children.
In one story, Abou Traore—a cocoa farmer who moved from Burkina Faso to Côte d’Ivoire seeking education—worked on these farms from age 10. When interviewed, Traore said, “I came here to go to school. I haven’t been to school for five years now.” He also lied about his age when his superior was present but privately revealed he was actually 15 instead of 19. In another story, cocoa farmer and parent Mr. Zongo said, “We are exhausted and we don’t have enough money,” when asked about the accessibility of education. Despite working on cocoa farms for 30 years, he could afford to send only one of his children to school, while the others labor on his farm.
Additionally, cacao farming practices have had detrimental effects on Côte d’Ivoire’s environmental health and prosperity. Since Côte d’Ivoire gained independence in 1960, nearly 90 percent of its rainforests have vanished due to deforestation. A Global Forest Watch report revealed that Côte d’Ivoire had the second-highest increase in deforestation rates globally in 2019. Furthermore, the enforcement of land protection laws is extremely lax in this country. Approximately 40 percent of the country’s cocoa crop is grown illegally in national parks and 230 government-owned forests that are supposedly protected; therefore, over one-third of Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa farms operate on protected land. This rapid conversion of forests to cocoa farms threatens local biodiversity and aggravates the climate crisis.
Governmental initiatives related to deforestation in Côte D’Ivoire have been mixed. On one hand, a 2019 law removed codified protections from thousands of square miles of classified forest, rendering them under the control of international companies. Environmentalists and critics argued that this legislation effectively legalized large-scale deforestation and continued to encourage unsustainable cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire. On the other hand, recent efforts to reduce deforestation include the landmark Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) signed by the European Union and Côte d’Ivoire on February 19, 2024. This agreement promotes sustainability in Côte d’Ivoire’s forestry practices and timber exports to the European Union, including a crackdown on illegal logging.
This initiative developed over the course of a decade, during which environmental law charity ClientEarth collaborated with local partners to ensure the legislation would support community needs, protect Côte d’Ivoire’s forests, and restore forests affected by the timber trade. Action items within this agreement include reforming Côte d’Ivoire’s national forest laws to legally protect forests from exploitation by companies. Only companies that have obtained a license can export to the European Union, and exported wood will be tested to ensure its legality.
In addition, in May 2022, Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassanne Ouattara announced plans to raise US$1.5 billion to fund a five-year land restoration. This ambitious "Abidjan Legacy Programme" aimed to rejuvenate the country's degraded land, enhance food production, and create rural jobs. Given that Côte d'Ivoire has lost 80 percent of its forests since 1900 and risks losing the remainder by 2050 if current deforestation rates persist, the program planned to employ technologies such as tree-planting drones and drought-resistant plants to combat land degradation. Ouattara did not specify sources of funds for this project, but he sought private sector support for a separate US$1 billion initiative aimed at restoring three million hectares of forest by 2030. While these domestic plans reflect steps in the right direction, the lack of reliable funding sources suggests that international support—such as the recent FLEGT-VPA with the European Union—may be a leading source of progress in Côte d’Ivoire.
Case Study: Cameroon
Conversely, Cameroon is West Africa’s smallest cocoa producer. Its yield is dramatically lower than power players within the industry, such as Côte d’Ivoire, due to the old age of cocoa farms, an inadequate input supply system, less-favorable climate conditions, and deadly diseases. For instance, during cropping seasons, high rainfall in the region leads to rampant outbreaks of Phytophthora pod rot (black pod) disease in cocoa farms. This disease causes significant yield losses, particularly in shaded (agroforestry) cocoa farms. Controlling this disease requires frequent and costly copper fungicide sprays, which are not always effective. Despite these challenges, Cameroon’s cocoa production has nearly doubled in the last decade due to international demand, reaching about 220,000 tons per year. Slavery, along with human rights and child trafficking issues, also persists in Cameroon, reflecting the ongoing child labor and human rights abuses in this industry.
While both Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon are West African countries grappling with cocoa industry-related issues, the scale, type, and impact of these issues differ. Because Côte d'Ivoire has a much larger production scale, it faces more significant environmental and human rights challenges, including more severe deforestation and widespread child labor. In contrast, Cameroon’s smaller-scale production—rooted in challenges such as less-favorable growing conditions and disease outbreaks—restricts exploitation in this sector. However, despite government efforts to combat child labor in 2023, Cameroon still contends with human rights issues in the cocoa sector.
International Economic Factors Driving the Cocoa Industry
From cocoa beans to cocoa paste, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder, Europe is the world's largest importer of cocoa products and has the highest per-capita chocolate consumption globally. Specifically, the Netherlands is the world’s largest cocoa importer, bringing in 759,000 tons in 2022, which accounts for 44 percent of all European cocoa imports. Much of this cocoa is exported to other European countries or processed and then exported. Europe—especially the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland—is a significant trade hub for cocoa and chocolate products. As this industry continues to grow—the global industrial chocolate market is projected to grow at 4.4 percent annually from 2022 to 2030 and the European chocolate market at an annual growth rate of 4.8 percent from 2022 to 2027—chocolate production must increase to meet this demand. In turn, issues such as the environmental impacts of cocoa production as well as child labor and exploitation will be further exacerbated.
The slow rate of cocoa production notably clashes with the fast pace of demand. In fact, the cocoa in a half pound of chocolate can take a year for one cocoa tree to produce. For the third consecutive year, cocoa supply is projected to lag 8.5 percent behind global demand this season. A further deficit is anticipated next year. Industry sustainability is also threatened by the fact that rising chocolate prices and higher living costs are placing pressure on the organic market as more European buyers shift towards cheaper bulk chocolate. This shift strains non-organic producers—such as Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana—who must compensate as consumer preferences undercut organic production in Sierra Leone, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Existing Initiatives
Previous efforts have sought to combat the negative impacts of cocoa production. Some of these initiatives have been undertaken on a larger scale by major industry players. For example, the Harkin–Engel Protocol—signed by some of the world’s biggest chocolate companies in 2001—promised to eradicate child labor and slavery from chocolate production, but little change can be observed over the last 20 years. Other companies have taken it upon themselves to make a difference. For example, the “Sweet Solution” initiative, founded by Dutch chocolate manufacturer Tony Chocoloney, aims to raise awareness about child labor in the cocoa industry through an informative line of chocolate bars. Recent EU legislation has sought to increase company accountability, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which took effect in 2024 and aims to increase transparency and accountability regarding large EU companies’ sourcing and labor practices.
Other domestic and regional solutions seek to change production practices more directly. The Department of Agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire launched the Programme Quantité-Qualité-Croissance (Quantity-Quality Growth Program, or 2QC) 2014-2023 to enhance coffee and cocoa production systems for existing farmers. Another example is the Cocoa Fertilizer Initiative, started in 2012 in West Africa, which aimed to provide fertilizers to 200,000 farmers by 2020.
Looking Ahead: Future Solutions
To mitigate the environmental impacts of cocoa production, several strategies can be adopted. Transitioning to agroforestry—which incorporates tree cultivation and conservation—can mitigate climate change impacts by storing carbon and protecting farms from droughts and pests. Other climate-friendly farming practices such as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) can increase productivity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, post-harvest practices, such as natural drying, can further reduce the carbon footprint. To counteract the damage caused by deforestation, companies and farms can engage in reforestation projects. Finally, traceability of cocoa origins should be further encouraged and incorporated into policy. Traceability addresses environmental and ethical concerns related to cocoa production while potentially making chocolate more attractive to buyers by marking products as ethically sourced. EU importers already require detailed information about the origin of cocoa. Cocoa companies can develop a custom traceability system, use existing systems (e.g. Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, and Organic), or adopt national systems based on the country of operation.
Ultimately, it is essential to think globally while acting locally. Consumers can strive to take small actions in their everyday lives that, when done collectively by many, can make a valuable difference. For example, consumers can be more mindful and responsible about the brands they support, specifically seeking ethically and sustainably sourced chocolate. Small, conscious decisions—when multiplied across communities—can drive significant positive change globally.
