Ivory
Coast law could see chocolate industry ‘wipe out’ protected
forests
A
new law in Ivory Coast is removing the rights of forest. The demand
of production of chocolate is so high so than protected forest until
now are in danger of deforestation´.
Workers
earn less than a dollar a day despite of working with a heavy level
of pesticides and bad job conditions.
There
are people in the community who are struggling against this poor
conditions.
The
demand for chocolate is driving deforestation in Ivory Coast, which
produces more than a third of the world's cocoa. Around 90% of the
country's forests have been destroyed since independence in 1960,
forcing species such as elephants and chimpanzees in the forest to
almost become extinct.
Studies
estimate that there are more than 2 million children working in the
cocoa fields of West Africa, and trafficking and slavery are
widespread.
Companies
say they want to improve conditions but they also say that “Chocolate
companies have no responsibility for anything, they have a supply
chain of They are not responsible”. And Alain-Richard Donwahi, the
Ivory Coast’s minister for water and forests, committed to
restoring a fifth of the forest cover the country had lost by 2030.
AUTHOR : Nely Soriano
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