DEFORESTATION High deforestation rates persist
analysis providers to enhance monitoring. Through this collaboration, cocoa farms are routinely screened for deforestation, proximity to protected areas and compliance with the Verified Deforestation Free standard, using various cut-off dates. When cases are flagged through this system, Tony’s Open Chain carries out ground-truthing, as articulated in our Ground-Truthing & Remediation Protocol, developed this season. Relevant aspects were established in collaboration with supply chain partners Cocoa Source and Barry Callebaut, as, under the EUDR, these parties will also be responsible for ensuring that all their imported cocoa has been sourced from deforestation-free plots since December 31, 2020. A total of 87 out of 42,540 (0.2%) farms in scope were initially flagged for deforestation (of which 25 were in Côte d’Ivoire and 62 in Ghana). The subsequent ground-truthing process (covering 85 farms 79 ) showed that of these, only 2 (0.01%) farms had confirmed instances of deforestation. This highlights the importance of ground-truthing to prevent unwarranted exclusion of cocoa farmers from the supply chain. WHAT IS DEFORESTATION? At Tony’s Open Chain, a forest is defined as an area of land that covers over 0.5 hectares, featuring trees taller than 5 meters and a canopy cover exceeding 10%. Deforestation refers to the conversion of forest to other land uses or the long-term reduction of tree canopy cover below the minimum 10% threshold with a size of at least 0.5 hectares. For more definitions related to deforestation, click here.
Rapid rates of deforestation continue to be a key issue in both Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Côte d’Ivoire lost approximately 160,000 hectares of natural forest in 2024, with cocoa cultivation remaining a major driver – responsible for around 45% of the country’s total deforestation and forest degradation. 76,77 Ghana lost approximately 77,000 hectares of forest cover, driven primarily by illegal logging, unsustainable agricultural practices and gold mining activities. 78 Despite delays and continued political uncertainty around the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Tony’s Open Chain remains firmly committed to sourcing deforestation-free cocoa. We go beyond the requirements of the EUDR by actively working to both prevent and remediate cases of deforestation, rather than purely focusing on preventing cocoa sourced from deforested land from entering the supply chain. This includes identifying and supporting cocoa farmers identified as being at high risk of cutting down trees on their land, working with farmers to restore degraded land, and offering a path back into the supply chain for farmers who have been excluded from the supply chain, provided they demonstrate efforts to restore their land to agreed standards. This proactive, inclusive and restorative model raises the bar for deforestation and remediation monitoring higher than the current industry norm. Deforestation cases In 2024/25 99.99% of Tony’s Open Chain cocoa was verified deforestation-free. We continued to ensure that 100% of the farms in our supply chain were GPS-polygon-mapped, assessed for deforestation and assessed for overlap with protected areas. Partner cooperatives are trained by Tony’s Open Chain to collect these maps in accordance with standardised protocols. Following this, Tony’s Open Chain conducts rigorous checks on the maps to assess deforestation risk and overlap with protected areas, using tools such as the Global Forest Watch Deforestation Risk Map and official Forestry Commission data. In addition, Tony’s Open Chain partners with deforestation risk
Ghana 2025 46.8 million
78.1 million Côte d'Ivoire
Metric tons of CO2 emitted as a result of deforestation
... that's the annual emission of over
10 million cars
17 million
76. Global Forest Watch. Country Dashboards: Côte d’Ivoire. World Resources Institute. 77. Forest Trends. Côte d’Ivoire Country Profile. 78. Global Forest Watch. Country Dashboards: Ghana. World Resources Institute. 79. Out of the 87 farms, 36 were groundtruthed, while enhanced satellite imaging analysis was performed for another 49. These farms had been identified as likely constituting false positives, which was confirmed. 2 farmers were not visited this season because their alerts were reported towards the end of the season, when field verification was nearing completion. These farms will be prioritised for field verification in the second quarter of 2025/26; until then their deforestation status is still pending.
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Ending exploitation in cocoa together
Living income
Climate, environment & productivity
Human rights
Governance & finances
Interesting appendices
Scaling for change
Introduction
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