Barry Callebaut commits to becoming forest positive by 2025

Swiss cocoa products company Barry Callebaut has announced that it aims to become forest positive by 2025, as part of its ‘Forever Chocolate’ commitment.

As part of this initiative, the Swiss company is working with environmental sustainability consultancy firm Quantis to develop an assessment that will help the company and its clients to incorporate forest protection activities.

Quantis Natural Capital Solutions lead Michele Zollinger said: “At Quantis, we’re proud of developing this cutting-edge carbon footprinting assessment with Barry Callebaut to evaluate the impacts of cocoa farming on land-use change and deforestation.

“It provides a more realistic snapshot of what is happening on the ground, paving the way for more precise footprints, reduction strategies and action plans to effectively tackle land-use change emissions in the cocoa supply chain.

“We hope this will inspire the wider industry to action and accelerate sustainable transformation.”

Under the partnership, the company will be assessing the impacts of land-use change (LUC) and deforestation driven by cocoa farming.

By using GPS, satellite imagery and farm-level data, the company aim to gain a better understanding of each farm or a cooperative form where it sources and ascertain how it is contributing to direct land-use change (LUC) emissions.

Barry Callebaut anticipates that these measures will enable it to involve cocoa farming communities to adopt natural resource management and avoid activities such as land-clearing for agriculture that could lead to deforestation.