Cocoa Certification by the Numbers

How do we know our work with cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire is improving lives, lands and livelihoods? 

We commissioned the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) to conduct on-the-ground research in the West African country. In 2009, and again in 2011, COSA scientists collected data at Rainforest Alliance Certified and non-certified farms, representing a total of 452 farm visits. Their research revealed an assortment of changes on Rainforest Alliance Certified farms in the world’s largest cocoa producing nation:

Want to learn more? Meet an Ivoirian farmer benefiting from Rainforest Alliance certification.

25 Things You Might Not Know About Chocolate

It’s amazing melted and mixed with milk. It’s the perfect addition to cake and cookie batter. It’s divine sweetened with a little sugar. We know it’s delicious (in all its forms), but there’s more to chocolate than great taste. A few facts to nourish your mind…

1. On Valentine’s Day, more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold in the United States.
2. Chocolate (really, the cocoa beans it is made from) grows on theobroma cacao trees and — like coffee – can flourish under the shade of the forest canopy and support biodiversity.
3. A cocoa pod contains an average of about 42 beans; it takes some 270 beans to make a pound of chocolate.
4. Experts predict that there will be a “modest” cocoa shortage of about 100,000 tons over the coming year.
5. According to the Greeks,  theobroma is literally the “food of the gods.”
6. Côte d’Ivoire produces more cocoa than any other nation in the world; the industry supports an estimated 4.5 million people in the West African country.
7. Rainforest Alliance Certified™ cocoa farms conserve forests and wildlife while ensuring that workers are provided with decent wages and safe living and working conditions, and their families have access to health care and education.
8. In South American civilizations, cocoa beans were once used as a form of currency and only eaten as their quality degraded. According to ancient records, a horse cost 10 beans and a rabbit could be purchased for four beans.
9. Approximately 70 percent of the world’s cacao comes from West Africa (including Côte d’Ivoire). Cacao trees grow across the lowland tropical regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas.
10. The Mayans were the first to grind up cacao seeds and use them to concoct a drink.
11. Cocoa is farmed on more than 28,000 square miles (18 million acres or 7.5 million hectares) worldwide. That’s an area about the size of Ireland or the state of South Carolina.
12. The word chocolate probably comes from the Aztec word “xocolatl” meaning “bitter water.”
13. About 40 million people worldwide, including five million farmers, rely on cocoa for their livelihoods. Most cocoa is grown by “smallholder” farmers who own one- or two-acre plots of land.
14. Cocoa was introduced in Spain as early as the 1600’s, but it wasn’t until 1765 that the first chocolate factory was established in the United States.
15. Like turkey, chocolate contains tryptophan — a chemical that the brain uses to produce serotonin, which can generate feelings of ecstasy or love.
16. There are Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa farms in 14 countries: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania and Togo.
17. Chocolate (especially the dark variety) is rich in antioxidants.
18. The average American eats about 12 pounds of chocolate per year.
19. In the infamous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” chocolate syrup is used as fake blood.
20. This year, 47 percent of US consumers will exchange Valentine’s Day candy – and 75 percent of that candy will be chocolate.
21. The Rainforest Alliance is working with farmers in Ghana to produce “climate-friendly” cocoa that benefits workers and communities financially while helping them to adopt practices that curb climate change and mitigate its impacts.
22. Two out of three women say choosing their own chocolate is just as personal a decision as selecting their own lipstick.
23. A cacao tree takes five years to produce its first beans.
24. A COSA study on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire found that (compared to their uncertified neighbors) Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa farmers produced more cocoa per hectare; earned a higher net income; implemented more soil and water conservation measures; and were more committed to community engagement.
25. Emperor Montezuma is said to have sipped 50 golden goblets of hot chocolate – dyed red and spiced with chili peppers – daily.

Is your mouth watering yet? Visit Shop the Frog to find brands and stores offering Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate goodies; enter to win a basket full of Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate; and watch our new Valentine’s Day video.

Did You Know?: Five Surprising Things That Come From the Forests

Forests are skilled multi-taskers: They house countless wildlife species, protect soils and water sources, prevent erosion, help regulate the global climate and provide us with the goods we use every day, including wood, paper, coffee and cocoa. But did you know that the following five items also originate in forests?

1) Rubber

Whether it’s the ball that your kids toss on the playground or the soles of your most comfortable shoes, the natural rubber in these products is made from a milky white sap that flows from the rubber tree when part of its bark is removed. A quick-growing species, the rubber tree provides important income to indigenous populations and gives forest communities an economic incentive to conserve their forestlands. Though native to South America’s Amazon region, rubber trees are now cultivated all over the globe. In Guatemala, the Rainforest Alliance has verified a forest carbon project designed to raise money for the establishment of sustainable rubber tree plantations, which will help restore degraded pastureland and sequester greenhouse gas emissions.

2) Cork

The last time you pulled a non-synthetic cork out of a wine bottle, did you realize that the stopper came from an oak tree? The outer bark of the cork oak – a tree found throughout southwestern Europe and northwestern Africa – is cut and peeled and can be made into wine stoppers, bulletin boards and other items. Because the cork oak is able to regenerate its outer bark, each tree can be harvested multiple times, making cork a renewable resource. Plus, harvested trees are good for the climate — they store up to five times more carbon than unharvested cork oaks. The Rainforest Alliance has been working with cork producers in Spain and Portugal to help them manage their forests sustainably, and winemakers such as Oregon’s Willamette Valley Vineyards are already using FSC/Rainforest Alliance Certified™ corks to seal their wines.

3) Brazil Nuts

The Brazil nut tree is a finicky specimen. In order to produce fruit, it requires that its forest home be undisturbed and that it contain a particular type of orchid whose exotic flowers attract the specific bee species that are necessary for pollination. It’s also a hard nut to crack, literally; only the agoutis, a large rodent, has teeth sharp enough to break through the fruit’s woody shell. But the tree’s fussy behavior pays off in a big way: Brazil nuts are rich in protein and their oil is used in many beauty products, making them one of the most economically important non-timber forest products in the Amazon and earning valuable income for the communities that collect them.

4) Mezcal

A distilled liquor known for its rich, smoky flavor, mezcal is produced from the maguey plant, which grows in the dry forests of southern Mexico. (Also known as wild agave, maguey is a relative of the plant used to make tequila.) The heart of the plant is roasted in a pit oven using charcoal that’s often derived from local trees, a practice that has resulted in deforestation. To help combat this problem, a former Rainforest Alliance Kleinhans Fellow has been working with the residents of one of Mexico’s poorest regions to help them produce this potent spirit in a sustainable manner.

5) Medicine

Your neighborhood pharmacy may be your first stop when you’re under the weather, but when it comes to many of our medicines, the forest is the ultimate source. Quinine, for example, is derived from the cinchona tree and is used to prevent and treat malaria. The bark of the Pacific yew tree contains paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug, while in traditional medicine, the fruit and leaves of the sapodilla tree (the species from which chicle is produced) are used to treat diarrhea, coughs and colds. All told, forest plants have helped to prevent, treat or cure inflammation, rheumatism, diabetes, muscle tension, surgical complications, heart conditions, skin diseases, arthritis, glaucoma and hundreds of other conditions.

Find out what the Rainforest Alliance is doing to keep forests standing – and discover more fun facts about the world’s forests.