The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) has announced the launch of a comprehensive deforestation risk assessment methodology for its members to use.
The methodology seeks to standardise how businesses assess the deforestation risk of locations where cocoa destined for the EU market is produced. This analysis is required for compliance with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which comes into effect in 2025.
According to the conditions of the EUDR, importers of key commodities such as cocoa will be required to show that goods were produced on land free of deforestation since the end of 2020.
‘An important milestone’
“This new WCF methodology helps ready the cocoa sector for EUDR compliance and is an important milestone in WCF’s overall traceability strategy,” commented Chris Vincent, WCF president.
“That strategy is focused on industry alignment and collective action, including enabling science-based, standardised best practices and systems that will contribute to real impact across the sector. It helps our members, cocoa farmers and policymakers achieve the shared goal of ending cocoa-related deforestation and improving farmer incomes linked to cocoa.”
According to the WCF, to date there has not been an authoritative methodology for assessing deforestation risk in the cocoa supply chain.
The new deforestation risk assessment methodology has been developed to work with cocoa from all origin countries, and has been developed in partnership with remote sensing pioneer Satelligence, the European Cocoa Association (ECA) and the European Forest Institute (EFI).
Read more: EUDR could lead to significant price increases for consumers, says analyst
Data collection best practice
It aims to enhance cocoa traceability and sustainability by establishing best practices for data collection and processes. This approach will give companies greater assurance about the cocoa passing through their supply chains, helping them ensure compliance with sustainability standards. Additionally, it supports cocoa farmers who comply with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by maintaining their market access to the EU.
By reducing ‘false positives’—instances where deforestation is mistakenly identified but has not occurred—the methodology prevents the unintentional exclusion of compliant cocoa farmers from supply chains, which can occur due to inaccurate environmental assessments.
“By helping the cocoa sector adopt a unified best-practice deforestation detection methodology tailored to the feedback of EU stakeholders, we created a reliable standard that directly supports EUDR compliance and beyond,” said Satelligence CEO Niels Wielaard. “Collective action builds trust and transparency among all stakeholders—including governments—ensuring that the path forward is both more simple and effective as we all work towards a deforestation-free cocoa sector.” Find out more here.
