Abstract
Cocoa is a crop grown largely by smallholder farmers in the lowland tropics, including parts of Latin America, West Africa, and Indonesia. Research suggests that it has the potential to provide biodiversity benefits when grown under certain shade conditions, especially when compared with alternative land uses. The primary literature on cocoa production reveals a range of objectives for improvement of cocoa production on small farms. These objectives are sometimes in direct opposition to each other, for example, increasing productivity through shade removal and chemical inputs, and the desire to increase biodiversity benefits. These opposing goals demonstrate some real trade-offs faced by cocoa producers. We summarize the current literature, drawing attention to some of these trade-offs and highlighting important ecological, economic, and social considerations. In considering strategies for ameliorating these negative tradeoffs, we make two primary policy recommendations. First, we suggest that outreach focusing on farm diversification may be the most effective way of optimizing ecological, economic, and social outcomes. Farm diversification may provide an effective means of achieving improved farmer security and dissuade farmers from abandoning or planting cocoa according to price fluctuations, thus reducing the use of new forest areas in cocoa production. Secondly, we suggest greater focus on determining effective economic incentives for maintaining shade in cocoa production. For example, price premiums associated high quality shade-grown cocoa may increase economic benefits while simultaneously providing incentives to farmers to maintain shade in production. Lastly, we identify some important areas of research for further informing policy in this arena.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahenkorah Y, Akrofi GS, Adri AK (1974) The end of the first cocoa shade and manurial experiment at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. J Hortic Sci 49:43–51
Agrawal A, Redford K (2006) Poverty, development, and biodiversity conservation: shooting in the dark? Wildlife Conservation Society Working Paper No. 26
Akiyama T, Nishio A (1996) Indonesia’s cocoa boom: hands-off policy encourages smallholder dynamism. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No.1580
Alger K, Caldas M (1994) The declining cocoa economy and the Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia, Brazil: conservation attitudes of cocoa planters. Environmentalist 14:107–119
Alves MC (1990) The role of cocoa plantations in the conservation of the Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia, Brazil. M.S. thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville
Arosemena G (1991) El fruto de los dioses: el cacao en el Ecuador, desde la colonia hasta el ocaso de su industria, 1600–1983. 2 Vols., Editorial Graba, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Ashley R, Russell D, Swallow B (2006) The policy terrain in protected area landscapes: challenges for agroforestry in integrated landscape conservation. Biodiv Conserv 15:663–689
Belsky JM, Siebert SF (2003) Cultivating cacao: implications of sun-grown cacao on local food security and environmental sustainability. Agric Human Values 20:277–285
Bentley JW, Boa E, Stonehouse J (2004) Neighbor trees: shade, intercropping, and cacao in Ecuador. Hum Ecol 32:241–270
Berry S (1975) Cocoa, custom, and socio-economic change in rural western Nigeria. Clarendon, Oxford
Borgerhoff Mulder M, Coppolillo P (2005) Conservation: linking ecology, economics, and culture. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Brooks JS, Franzen MA, Holmes CM, Grote MN, Borgerhoff Mulder M (2006) Testing hypotheses for the success of different conservation strategies. Conserv Biol 20:1528–1538
Clay J (2004) World agriculture and the environment. Island Press, Washington
Doherty B, Tranchell S (2005) New thinking in international trade? A case study of The Day Chocolate Company. Sustain Dev 13:166–176
Donald PF (2004) Biodiversity impacts of some agricultural commodity production systems. Conserv Biol 18:17–37
Duguma B, Gockowski J, Bakala J (2001) Smallholder cacao (Theobroma cacao Linn.) cultivation in agroforestry systems of West and Central Africa: challenges and opportunities. Agrof Systems 51:177–188
Faria D, Laps RR, Baumgarten J, Cetra M (2006) Bat and bird assemblages from forests and shade cacao plantations in two contrasting landscapes in the Atlantic Forest of southern Bahia, Brazil. Biodiv Conserv 15:587–612
Gbetnkom D (2005) Deforestation in Cameroon: immediate causes and consequences. Environ Dev Econ 10:557–572
Gockowski J, Ndoumbe M (2004) The adoption of intensive monocrop horticulture in southern Cameroon. Agric Econ 30:195–202
Greenberg R, Bichier P, Angon AC (2000) The conservation value for birds of cacao plantations with diverse planted shade in Tabasco, Mexico. Anim Conserv 3:105–112
Hartemink AE (2005) Nutrient stocks, nutrient cycling, and soil changes in cocoa ecosystems: a review. Adv Agron 86:227–253
Harvey CA, Gonzalez J, Somarriba E (2006) Dung beetle and terrestrial mammal diversity in forests, indigenous agroforestry systems and plantain monocultures in Talamanca, Costa Rica. Biodiv Conserv 15:555–585
Johns ND (1999) Conservation in Brazil’s chocolate forest: the unlikely persistence of the traditional cocoa agroecosystem. Environ Manage 23:31–47
Juste JB (1996) Trade in the gray parrot Psittacus erithacus on the Island of Principe (Sao Tome and Principe, Central Africa): initial assessment of the activity and its impact. Biol Conserv 76:101–104
Kessler M, Kessler PJA, Gradstein SR, Bach K, Schmull M, Pitopang R (2005) Tree diversity in primary forest and different land use systems in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biodiv Conserv 14:547–560
Krauss U, Soberanis W (2001) Rehabilitation of diseased cacao fields in Peru through shade regulation and timing of biocontrol measures. Agrof Systems 53:179–184
Laird S, Obialor C, Skinner E (1996) An introductory handbook to cocoa certification: a feasibility study and regional profile of West Africa. The Rainforest Alliance, New York
Leakey RRB (1998) Agroforestry in the humid lowlands of West Africa: some reflections on future directions for research. Agrof Systems 40:253–262
Leakey RRB, Tchoundjeu Z (2001) Diversification of tree crops: domestication of companion crops for poverty reduction and environmental services. Exp Agric 37:279–296
Leiter J, Harding S (2004) Trinidad, Brazil, and Ghana: three melting moments in the history of cocoa. J Rural Stud 20:113–130
May P, Vegro R, Menezes JA (1993) Coffee and cacao production and processing in Brazil. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. UNCTAD/COM, Rome
Murray Li T (2002) Local histories, global markets: cocoa and class in upland Sulawesi. Dev Change 33:415–437
Ndoye O, Kaimowitz D (2000) Macro-economics, markets and the humid forests of Cameroon, 1967–1997. J Mod Afr Stud 38:225–253
Nelson V, Tallontire A, Collinson C (2002) Assessing the benefits of ethical trade schemes for forest dependent people: comparative experience from Peru and Ecuador. Int Forestry Rev 4:99–109
Okuneye PA, Aromolaran AB, Adetunji MT, Arowolo TA, Adebayo K, Ayinde IA (2003) Environmental impacts of cocoa and rubber cultivation in Nigeria. Outlook Agric 32:43–49
Olujide MG, Adeogun SO (2006) Assessment of cocoa growers’ farm management practices in Ondo State, Nigeria. Spanish J Agric Res 4(2):173–179
Osei-Bonsu K, Opoku-Ameyaw K, Amoah FM, Oppong FK (2002) Cacao-coconut intercropping in Ghana: agronomic and economic perspectives. Agrof Systems 55:1–8
Pomp M, Burger K (1995) Innovation and imitation—adoption of cocoa by Indonesian smallholders. World Dev 23:423–431
Raboy BE, Christman MC, Dietz JM (2004) The use of degraded and shade cocoa forests by endangered golden-headed lion tamarins Leontopithecus chrysomelas. Oryx 38:75–83
Ramirez OA, Somarriba E (2000) Risk and returns of diversified cropping systems under nonnormal cross-, and autocorrelated commodity price structures. J Agric Resour Econ 25:653–668
Ramirez OA, Somarriba E, Ludewigs T, Ferreira P (2001) Financial returns, stability and risk of cacao-plantain-timber agroforestry systems in Central America. Agrof Systems 51:141–154
Rice RA, Greenberg R (2000) Cacao cultivation and the conservation of biological diversity. Ambio 29:167–173
Robinson JG, Redford KH (2004) Jack of all trades, master of none: inherent contradictions among ICDP approaches. In: McShane TO, Wells MP (eds) Getting biodiversity projects to work. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 10–34
Rolim SG, Chiarello AG (2004) Slow death of Atlantic forest trees in cocoa agroforestry in southeastern Brazil. Biodiv Conserv 13:2679–2694
Ronchi L (2001) Fair trade chocolate impact monitoring and evaluation. University of Sussex, Brighton
Ronchi L (2003) Fair trade impact monitoring and evaluation progress report. University of Sussex, Brighton
Ruf F (1995) From forest rent to tree-capital: basic ‘laws’ of cocoa supply. In: Ruf F, Siswoputranto PS (eds) Cocoa cycles: the economics of cocoa supply. Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge
Saatchi S, Agosti D, Alger K, Delabie J, Musinsky J (2001) Examining fragmentation and loss of primary forest in the southern Bahian Atlantic forest of Brazil with radar imagery. Conserv Biol 15:867–875
Schulz B, Becker B, Gotsch E (1994) Indigenous knowledge in a ‘modern’ sustainable agroforestry system – a case study from eastern Brazil. Agrof Systems 25:59–69
Siebert SF (2002) From shade- to sun-grown perennial crops in Sulawesi, Indonesia: implications for biodiversity conservation and soil fertility. Biodiv Conserv 11:1889–1902
Sonwa DJ, Coulibaly O, Adesina AA, Weise SF, Tchatat M (2002) Integrated pest management in cocoa agroforests in southern Cameroon: constraints and overview. Integr Pest Manage Rev 7:191–199
Sunderlin WD, Ndoye O, Bikie H, Laporte N, Mertens B, Pokam J (2000) Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in southern Cameroon. Environ Conserv 27:284–290
Weymar HF (1968) The dynamics of the world cocoa market. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Whinney J (2001) Considerations for the sustainable production of cocoa. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Washington, D.C
Zapfack L, Engwald S, Sonke B, Achoundong G, Madong BA (2002) The impact of land conversion on plant biodiversity in the forest zone of Cameroon. Biodiv Conserv 11:2047–2061
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mars Incorporated, and particularly Howard Shapiro, for inviting them to present these findings at Theobroma Cacao: The Tree of Change 2006 Symposium on Cocoa held on February 9–10th at The National Academies. Research was funded by the University of California at Davis, Division of Social Sciences.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Franzen, M., Borgerhoff Mulder, M. Ecological, economic and social perspectives on cocoa production worldwide. Biodivers Conserv 16, 3835–3849 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9183-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9183-5