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Ghana Cocoa Risk Blacklisted from EU Market Over Deforestation and Child Labour

By Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri
General News Ghana Cocoa Risk Blacklisted from EU Market Over Deforestation and Child Labour
DEC 17, 2018 LISTEN

The 2018 barometer report reveals that 2.1 million children are engaged in the cocoa fields in Ghana and Cote d’ivoire alone.

This means a high level of school age children have not only abandoned their education but are also exposed to harmful chemicals in spraying and fertilizer applications as well as attacks from dangerous animals.

It is against this background that a historic European Union (EU) Parliamentary hearing was held in Brussels on cocoa, deforestation, and child labor.

This first-ever hearing on the subject turned out to be a great step in the right direction to clean up the chocolate industry.

The hearing which was well attended by MEPs, their staff, Commission staff, a number of Directorates including DG-Trade, DG-DEVCO, and DG-Environment, and also by a senior representative of UNICEF and several ambassadors acknowledged that the EU is the number one importer, manufacturer, and consumer of cocoa and that the EU has a tremendous responsibility for this commodity’s problems.

They therefore called for binding legislation to stop cocoa from coming into the EU if it is linked to deforestation or child labour. Moreover, they expressed a strong determination to get an EU law passed soon.

They also hammered home the fact that voluntary industry action on cocoa is not enough. Likewise, NGOs speaking also made a unified call for a mandatory due diligence law.

Representatives of the largest chocolate manufacturers, who attended the hearing, agreed that a law would be welcomed; and the Government of Ghana representative also suggested an EU law could be desirable.

The hearing brought up criticism of EU trade agreements with Ghana and Ivory Coast, highlighting the need for such trade agreements to include better protections against deforestation and child labor.

Largely, there is new hope for forests threatened by cocoa, and for the 2.1 million children working on cocoa plantations.

The Project Coordinator at Friends of the Earth (FoE-Ghana), Dennis Acquah said increased cocoa production, poverty, low pay for cocoa and the lack of infrastructure such as schools are some of the reasons for child labour in the cocoa communities.

According to him, Ghana may risk being blacklisted by the United States once more for not doing enough to eliminate child labour in the cocoa communities.

“Through collaborations with cocoa farmers and other stakeholders, government can reduce child labour through awareness creation programs, continuing to demand a fair returns for farmers so they can afford to pay adult farm workers and provision of basic infrastructures,” he stated.

Stop-Deforestation Free Cocoa
Cocoa is the most important cash crop to both the Ghanaian economy and as the main source of livelihood for over a million farmers. Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa, and exports about 800,000 metric tons accounting for over 9% of the country’s GPD.

However, not all news about this cherished crop is pleasing to the ear and sight.

Dennis Acquah noted that between 2000 and 2010, Ghana lost a total of about 820,000 hectares of her forest area at a rate of 1.4% per annum and this jumped to a staggering 6% in 2011.

He added that even now deforestation is around 2% or 132,000 hectare per annum, one of the highest rates in the world after Togo and Nigeria.

According to him, much of this deforestation is due to the cherished cocoa crop which is estimated that cocoa farming alone accounts for about 50% of all forest lost by agriculture in Ghana’s high forest zone.

Ghana to lose Forest in Next 10 to 20years
“Forest experts have warned that Ghana’s natural forest risks being depleted in the next 10 to 20 years,” Mr Dennis Acquah stated.

In response to these threats and after intense pressure from civil society organisations, the Government of Ghana and Cote d’ivoire in November 2017, agreed to a framework for action by committing to ending deforestation in their cocoa supply chain, he intimated.

Mr Acquah stressed that the framework for action includes promoting forest protection and restoration, respecting cocoa farmer’s rights and promoting sustainable livelihoods for cocoa farmers.

Friends of the Earth-Ghana, together with other NGOs both international and local has been supporting the ‘’Chocolate Campaign’’ led by Mighty Earth, a global campaign organisation working to protect the environment. The campaign aims to achieve Deforestation-Free Cocoa across the world.

National Implementation Plan on Cocoa and Forest Initiatives

Mr Dennis Acquah said while Ghana can be commended for committing to ending deforestation in cocoa farming, there is the need to speed up with the National Implementation Plan on the Cocoa and Forest Initiative as reserve encroachment by cocoa farmers continues unabated.

According to him, the farmers are motivated by the government’s desire to increase cocoa output to a million metric tons annually as well as the political interference in law enforcement, to clear forest lands for farming.

“So farmers are moving fast to establish new farms before the implementation plan is imposed. If the cocoa sector continues with business as usual the forest will disappear at an alarming rate. Actual works on the ground are urgently needed to reverse the declining trend in the country’s forest resources,” Mr Acquah posited.

He urges Government to take a tough stance on cocoa led deforestation by equipping the Forestry Commission to increase their forest monitoring activities to prevent reserve encroachment before it happens.

There is the need for collaboration between the Forestry Commission and Cocobod to sensitize farmers on the effects of deforestation and also work to enforce the laws to prevent further reserve encroachment. Farmers also need support with sustainable farming techniques so they can maintain and increase their harvest without the need to cut more forest.

Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri
Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri

Editor

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