Supply chains in Africa have caused deforestation by illegal cocoa farming, damaging protected rainforests and creating damage to the very viable cocoa industry. Using satellite derived information from the UK Space Agency’s Forests 2020 Project, led by Ecometrica, the Ghana Forestry Commission has been supported in the development of a landscape-level map that separates cocoa from forestry, which is critical to measure how cocoa is driving deforestation. According to company materials, African Governments and the world’s cocoa companies look to UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme’s Forests 2020 to provide reliable and accurate maps that map forest cover change and differentiate cocoa farms from natural forests.

Fermented cocoa beans drying in Ghanaian sunshine (pic: Lewis Rattray)