Sustainable cocoa: from deforestation to reforestation

The Cocoa4Future project (formally titled "Durabilité des systèmes de production et dynamiques nouvelles du secteur cacaoyer") is a €6 million EU-funded intervention in Côte d'Ivoire aimed at improving forest governance, supporting reforestation in classified and rural forests, and promoting agroforestry practices within the cocoa sector. IATI financial records offer the most reliable available signal of progress: the full €6 million has been committed and approximately €5 million disbursed against a project period running from February 2020 to January 2026. That disbursement rate, at roughly 83 percent of committed funds, is a credible indicator that implementation has advanced materially, though disbursement to an implementing partner does not by itself confirm outcomes on the ground. The project is classified under the Global Gateway Energy pillar, a categorisation that sits awkwardly alongside its environmental and agricultural content. No explanation for this classification is available in the source material, and readers should treat the pillar designation with some caution. The broader operating environment for this project is difficult. Reuters reported in July 2023 that after five years of coordinated industry and government effort, a reliable formula for ending cocoa-linked deforestation in West Africa remained elusive. In October 2023, Reuters reported that the EU itself warned Côte d'Ivoire to accelerate compliance with incoming deforestation due-diligence regulations. A subsequent report from May 2026 indicated that cocoa traceability in Côte d'Ivoire had stalled at 48 percent, a significant shortfall given that full supply-chain traceability is a prerequisite for compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation. That figure, cited by ESG News (an outlet of moderate but not Tier 1 reliability), should be treated as indicative rather than definitive, but it aligns with the broader picture painted by Tier 1 sources. There is no independent, project-specific coverage of Cocoa4Future from Reuters, AFP, the Financial Times, or equivalent outlets. The news items available address the sectoral and regulatory context rather than this intervention directly. This limits confidence in any assessment of on-the-ground outcomes. EU institutional sources have not provided verifiable data on hectares reforested, governance reforms enacted, or farmer participation rates, and no such figures have been confirmed by independent reporting. For a business audience, the picture is mixed. Financial execution appears reasonably advanced based on IATI records, and the project operates in a genuine policy priority area backed by a credible regulatory driver in the form of the EU Deforestation Regulation. However, independent evidence that Côte d'Ivoire's deforestation trajectory is improving is absent, and the sector-wide traceability gap suggests structural challenges that a €6 million project is unlikely to resolve on its own. The project's contribution to any measurable outcome cannot be confirmed from available evidence.