<p>Join our webinar for an overview of the satellite imagery and resources available on GFW. We will be joined by partners from KSAT and Planet to share how this satellite imagery can help users investigate what’s happening in the world’s forests. <a href="https://wri.zoom.us/webinar/register/7617086143771/WN_8_Q9dGGwQT2mqRpd4LgRZA" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Register here!</a></p>


Investigating Deforestation with Satellite Imagery

Commodities

Read about the role forests play in the production of commodities around the world.

Commodities | Global Forest Watch Blog

Cargill

Cargill | Global Forest Watch Blog

CFI | Global Forest Watch Blog

Chocolate

Chocolate | Global Forest Watch Blog

Cocoa

Cocoa | Global Forest Watch Blog

Farming

Farming | Global Forest Watch Blog

Forest Atlas

Forest Atlas | Global Forest Watch Blog

GFW Pro

GFW Pro | Global Forest Watch Blog

Mondelez

Mondelez | Global Forest Watch Blog

monitoring

monitoring | Global Forest Watch Blog

smallholder

smallholder | Global Forest Watch Blog

Caroline Winchester

<p>Ever wonder where the chocolate in your&nbsp;candy bar&nbsp;came from? With 70 percent of the world’s cocoa produced by Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, chances are your midnight&nbsp;snack started&nbsp;out&nbsp;as a seed pod&nbsp;growing on a cocoa farm in West Africa.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<div class="imageright"><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-3569 alignright" style="padding-bottom: 10px;" alt="Cocoa pod" src="https://dev-global-forest-watch-blog.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_5732.jpg" width="100%">Chocolate is made by fermenting and drying the seeds of the cocoa pod. Photo by Caroline Winchester/WRI. </div>



<p>West Africa is also home to&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://bit.ly/2T5ifsf" target="_blank">Upper Guinean rainforest</a>, and like many other&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;areas&nbsp;where&nbsp;commodities&nbsp;compete with the environment for land,&nbsp;these forests have been threatened by the growth of the cocoa industry.&nbsp;Between 1988 and 2007 it is estimated that&nbsp;nearly&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/317701513577699790/Forest-and-climate-smart-cocoa-in-C%C3%B4te-D-Ivoire-and-Ghana-aligning-stakeholders-to-support-smallholders-in-deforestation-free-cocoa" target="_blank">2.3 million hectares</a>&nbsp;of the Upper Guinean rainforest were cleared to make way for&nbsp;cocoa farms.&nbsp;However,&nbsp;in 2017 the cocoa&nbsp;sector&nbsp;followed the&nbsp;example&nbsp;of commodities such as palm oil and soy in&nbsp;committing&nbsp;to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains&nbsp;through the launch of the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/initiative/cocoa-and-forests/" target="_blank">Cocoa & Forests Initiative</a>&nbsp;(CFI).</p>



<p>The&nbsp;CFI&nbsp;is&nbsp;led by&nbsp;the World Cocoa Foundation,&nbsp;IDH&nbsp;the Sustainable Trade Initiative&nbsp;and The Prince&nbsp;of Wales’&nbsp;International Sustainability Unit.&nbsp;This initiative&nbsp;covers an estimated 80&nbsp;percent&nbsp;of global cocoa usage and represents&nbsp;a&nbsp;pledge by&nbsp;both&nbsp;Ghana and&nbsp;Côte d’Ivoire&nbsp;as well as&nbsp;key cocoa and chocolate companies,&nbsp;to end deforestation and forest degradation&nbsp;from&nbsp;cocoa&nbsp;on any forested&nbsp;land. Specific&nbsp;areas to be protected, including&nbsp;national&nbsp;parks, are laid&nbsp;out&nbsp;within&nbsp;the&nbsp;Frameworks&nbsp;for Action for&nbsp;both countries.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>While&nbsp;this&nbsp;commitment is an impressive&nbsp;first step, it&nbsp;is only half the battle. In order to manage&nbsp;deforestation, CFI signatories&nbsp;must be able to&nbsp;detect where cocoa farms are expanding into&nbsp;forested&nbsp;lands&nbsp;so they can take appropriate mitigation&nbsp;measures.&nbsp;As part of the agreement,&nbsp;signatories committed to transparent satellite-based monitoring&nbsp;systems&nbsp;and publicly&nbsp;disclosed&nbsp;reports&nbsp;on progress&nbsp;towards&nbsp;their&nbsp;commitment to halt deforestation.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>The World Resources&nbsp;Institute&nbsp;(WRI)&nbsp;has coordinated closely with&nbsp;the initiative&nbsp;to provide support on defining the needs of&nbsp;these&nbsp;monitoring&nbsp;systems, including&nbsp;datasets&nbsp;able to&nbsp;differentiate areas of cocoa production from&nbsp;natural forest&nbsp;and&nbsp;datasets which&nbsp;delineate the boundaries of&nbsp;national&nbsp;parks&nbsp;amongst&nbsp;other&nbsp;ecologically important areas.&nbsp;In addition to&nbsp;relevant datasets,&nbsp;a successful monitoring system needs&nbsp;a platform&nbsp;that&nbsp;can&nbsp;analyze and&nbsp;visualize&nbsp;this&nbsp;data&nbsp;to determine&nbsp;whether progress&nbsp;and key outcomes are&nbsp;being achieved. Such monitoring platforms are necessary at both&nbsp;the&nbsp;national&nbsp;scale to enable monitoring by governments, and&nbsp;supply chain scale for&nbsp;monitoring&nbsp;by&nbsp;companies.</p>



<div class="imageleft"><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-3569 alignright" style="padding-bottom: 10px;" alt="Cocoa Farmer" src="https://dev-global-forest-watch-blog.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_5696.jpg" width="100%">Most cocoa farms in West Africa are small-scale. Photo by Caroline Winchester/WRI </div>



<p>What makes&nbsp;effective cocoa monitoring tricky however, is the way in which&nbsp;it is&nbsp;grown.&nbsp;Cocoa pods grow on trees&nbsp;and&nbsp;can be&nbsp;produced&nbsp;either in&nbsp;full&nbsp;sun&nbsp;or&nbsp;under the shade of larger trees.&nbsp;In addition,&nbsp;most cocoa operations are small-scale — an average cocoa farm in West Africa ranges in size from two to five hectares.&nbsp;This means that the spatial patterns that make a non-tree crop (like soy) more identifiable from above are much harder to detect for cocoa. Because of this,&nbsp;developing an automated and cost-efficient method of detecting and differentiating these farms&nbsp;is&nbsp;complicated.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Since 2017,&nbsp;WRI has directly supported&nbsp;cocoa and chocolate companies&nbsp;through its supply chain monitoring platform&nbsp;<a href="https://pro.globalforestwatch.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Forest Watch&nbsp;Pro</a>&nbsp;(GFW Pro).&nbsp;The&nbsp;online&nbsp;platform&nbsp;allows&nbsp;companies&nbsp;to&nbsp;securely manage deforestation risk and track progress towards&nbsp;their&nbsp;no-deforestation goals.&nbsp;It&nbsp;enables&nbsp;companies&nbsp;to&nbsp;log&nbsp;into a private account,&nbsp;plot the location of thousands of farms and&nbsp;analyze these farms in relation to&nbsp;contextual information like&nbsp;tree cover loss&nbsp;and&nbsp;protected&nbsp;forests.&nbsp;This&nbsp;system&nbsp;has enabled companies&nbsp;including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cargill.com/story/tackling-deforestation-with-data-cargill-maps-its-cocoa-supply?sf207560365=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cargill</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cocoalife.org/the-program/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mondelez</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;prioritize&nbsp;engagement in&nbsp;risky areas&nbsp;where cocoa farms might exist near&nbsp;national&nbsp;parks or&nbsp;other protected areas.&nbsp;Companies can also produce reports&nbsp;for public disclosure in support of their sustainable cocoa policies&nbsp;and commitments.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>GFW Pro also has the potential to&nbsp;support fully&nbsp;compliant CFI monitoring. Technology providers&nbsp;have begun to&nbsp;develop maps&nbsp;detailing&nbsp;areas of cocoa production, and WRI is working with these providers and CFI stakeholders&nbsp;in West Africa to assess options for integrating these maps and other national and regional datasets into GFW Pro&nbsp;to better meet the cocoa sector’s needs.</p>



<p>At present,&nbsp;GFW Pro is&nbsp;operating&nbsp;in a&nbsp;preview&nbsp;period&nbsp;during which WRI is working with over 50&nbsp;partners to&nbsp;perfect the&nbsp;system&nbsp;before a&nbsp;public launch later this year. After public&nbsp;launch,&nbsp;supply chain actors around the globe will be able to&nbsp;create&nbsp;accounts and begin managing deforestation risk.&nbsp;</p>



<div class="imageright"><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-3569 alignright" style="padding-bottom: 10px;" alt="EG Forest Atlas" src="https://dev-global-forest-watch-blog.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Forest-Atlas.png" width="100%"> Forest Atlases are customizable in order to best suit each country’s needs. </div>



<p>A model like<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" WRI’s Forest Atlas (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.wri.org/our-work/project/forest-atlases" target="_blank"> WRI’s Forest Atlas</a>, which provides freely accessible infrastructure for online platforms that are hosted within and owned by national institutions, offers a solution for cocoa monitoring at a national scale. By combining official government data on land use with national and global datasets on forest change, this platform could enable CFI monitoring and management by governments. </p>



<p>The CFI’s industry wide commitment&nbsp;to collaborative&nbsp;and&nbsp;robust monitoring solutions is a commendable first step&nbsp;in combatting deforestation.&nbsp;With monitoring systems in place, CFI signatories will be able to&nbsp;effectively&nbsp;measure and&nbsp;manage&nbsp;impacts from the cocoa sector. WRI looks forward to continuing to support&nbsp;positive change&nbsp;for&nbsp;West Africa and&nbsp;around the globe,&nbsp;so that consumers can rest easy knowing no forests were harmed in the making of that chocolate bar.&nbsp;</p>



<hr> 

<div class="attribute" style="”padding-bottom:" 10px;”=""> 
BANNER PHOTO: Cocoa beans on a farm in Ghana. Photo by Caroline Winchester/WRI. 


</div> 

 

<hr>



<style type="text/css"></style>

Keeping an Eye on Cocoa: Satellite Monitoring Provides Key Support on No Deforestation Commitments

<p>Ever wonder where the chocolate in your&nbsp;candy bar&nbsp;came from? With 70 percent of the world’s cocoa produced by Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, chances are your midnight&nbsp;snack started&nbsp;out&nbsp;as a seed pod&nbsp;growing on a cocoa farm in West Africa.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<div class="imageright"><img class=" wp-image-3569 alignright" style="padding-bottom: 10px;" alt="Cocoa pod" src="https://dev-global-forest-watch-blog.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_5732.jpg" width="100%">Chocolate is made by fermenting and drying the seeds of the cocoa pod. Photo by Caroline Winchester/WRI. </div>



<p>West Africa is also home to&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://bit.ly/2T5ifsf" target="_blank">Upper Guinean rainforest</a>, and like many other&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;areas&nbsp;where&nbsp;commodities&nbsp;compete with the environment for land,&nbsp;these forests have been threatened by the growth of the cocoa industry.&nbsp;Between 1988 and 2007 it is estimated that&nbsp;nearly&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/317701513577699790/Forest-and-climate-smart-cocoa-in-C%C3%B4te-D-Ivoire-and-Ghana-aligning-stakeholders-to-support-smallholders-in-deforestation-free-cocoa" target="_blank">2.3 million hectares</a>&nbsp;of the Upper Guinean rainforest were cleared to make way for&nbsp;cocoa farms.&nbsp;However,&nbsp;in 2017 the cocoa&nbsp;sector&nbsp;followed the&nbsp;example&nbsp;of commodities such as palm oil and soy in&nbsp;committing&nbsp;to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains&nbsp;through the launch of the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/initiative/cocoa-and-forests/" target="_blank">Cocoa &amp; Forests Initiative</a>&nbsp;(CFI).</p>



<p>The&nbsp;CFI&nbsp;is&nbsp;led by&nbsp;the World Cocoa Foundation,&nbsp;IDH&nbsp;the Sustainable Trade Initiative&nbsp;and The Prince&nbsp;of Wales’&nbsp;International Sustainability Unit.&nbsp;This initiative&nbsp;covers an estimated 80&nbsp;percent&nbsp;of global cocoa usage and represents&nbsp;a&nbsp;pledge by&nbsp;both&nbsp;Ghana and&nbsp;Côte d’Ivoire&nbsp;as well as&nbsp;key cocoa and chocolate companies,&nbsp;to end deforestation and forest degradation&nbsp;from&nbsp;cocoa&nbsp;on any forested&nbsp;land. Specific&nbsp;areas to be protected, including&nbsp;national&nbsp;parks, are laid&nbsp;out&nbsp;within&nbsp;the&nbsp;Frameworks&nbsp;for Action for&nbsp;both countries.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>While&nbsp;this&nbsp;commitment is an impressive&nbsp;first step, it&nbsp;is only half the battle. In order to manage&nbsp;deforestation, CFI signatories&nbsp;must be able to&nbsp;detect where cocoa farms are expanding into&nbsp;forested&nbsp;lands&nbsp;so they can take appropriate mitigation&nbsp;measures.&nbsp;As part of the agreement,&nbsp;signatories committed to transparent satellite-based monitoring&nbsp;systems&nbsp;and publicly&nbsp;disclosed&nbsp;reports&nbsp;on progress&nbsp;towards&nbsp;their&nbsp;commitment to halt deforestation.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>The World Resources&nbsp;Institute&nbsp;(WRI)&nbsp;has coordinated closely with&nbsp;the initiative&nbsp;to provide support on defining the needs of&nbsp;these&nbsp;monitoring&nbsp;systems, including&nbsp;datasets&nbsp;able to&nbsp;differentiate areas of cocoa production from&nbsp;natural forest&nbsp;and&nbsp;datasets which&nbsp;delineate the boundaries of&nbsp;national&nbsp;parks&nbsp;amongst&nbsp;other&nbsp;ecologically important areas.&nbsp;In addition to&nbsp;relevant datasets,&nbsp;a successful monitoring system needs&nbsp;a platform&nbsp;that&nbsp;can&nbsp;analyze and&nbsp;visualize&nbsp;this&nbsp;data&nbsp;to determine&nbsp;whether progress&nbsp;and key outcomes are&nbsp;being achieved. Such monitoring platforms are necessary at both&nbsp;the&nbsp;national&nbsp;scale to enable monitoring by governments, and&nbsp;supply chain scale for&nbsp;monitoring&nbsp;by&nbsp;companies.</p>



<div class="imageleft"><img class=" wp-image-3569 alignright" style="padding-bottom: 10px;" alt="Cocoa Farmer" src="https://dev-global-forest-watch-blog.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_5696.jpg" width="100%">Most cocoa farms in West Africa are small-scale. Photo by Caroline Winchester/WRI </div>



<p>What makes&nbsp;effective cocoa monitoring tricky however, is the way in which&nbsp;it is&nbsp;grown.&nbsp;Cocoa pods grow on trees&nbsp;and&nbsp;can be&nbsp;produced&nbsp;either in&nbsp;full&nbsp;sun&nbsp;or&nbsp;under the shade of larger trees.&nbsp;In addition,&nbsp;most cocoa operations are small-scale — an average cocoa farm in West Africa ranges in size from two to five hectares.&nbsp;This means that the spatial patterns that make a non-tree crop (like soy) more identifiable from above are much harder to detect for cocoa. Because of this,&nbsp;developing an automated and cost-efficient method of detecting and differentiating these farms&nbsp;is&nbsp;complicated.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Since 2017,&nbsp;WRI has directly supported&nbsp;cocoa and chocolate companies&nbsp;through its supply chain monitoring platform&nbsp;<a href="https://pro.globalforestwatch.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Forest Watch&nbsp;Pro</a>&nbsp;(GFW Pro).&nbsp;The&nbsp;online&nbsp;platform&nbsp;allows&nbsp;companies&nbsp;to&nbsp;securely manage deforestation risk and track progress towards&nbsp;their&nbsp;no-deforestation goals.&nbsp;It&nbsp;enables&nbsp;companies&nbsp;to&nbsp;log&nbsp;into a private account,&nbsp;plot the location of thousands of farms and&nbsp;analyze these farms in relation to&nbsp;contextual information like&nbsp;tree cover loss&nbsp;and&nbsp;protected&nbsp;forests.&nbsp;This&nbsp;system&nbsp;has enabled companies&nbsp;including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cargill.com/story/tackling-deforestation-with-data-cargill-maps-its-cocoa-supply?sf207560365=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cargill</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cocoalife.org/the-program/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mondelez</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;prioritize&nbsp;engagement in&nbsp;risky areas&nbsp;where cocoa farms might exist near&nbsp;national&nbsp;parks or&nbsp;other protected areas.&nbsp;Companies can also produce reports&nbsp;for public disclosure in support of their sustainable cocoa policies&nbsp;and commitments.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>GFW Pro also has the potential to&nbsp;support fully&nbsp;compliant CFI monitoring. Technology providers&nbsp;have begun to&nbsp;develop maps&nbsp;detailing&nbsp;areas of cocoa production, and WRI is working with these providers and CFI stakeholders&nbsp;in West Africa to assess options for integrating these maps and other national and regional datasets into GFW Pro&nbsp;to better meet the cocoa sector’s needs.</p>



<p>At present,&nbsp;GFW Pro is&nbsp;operating&nbsp;in a&nbsp;preview&nbsp;period&nbsp;during which WRI is working with over 50&nbsp;partners to&nbsp;perfect the&nbsp;system&nbsp;before a&nbsp;public launch later this year. After public&nbsp;launch,&nbsp;supply chain actors around the globe will be able to&nbsp;create&nbsp;accounts and begin managing deforestation risk.&nbsp;</p>



<div class="imageright"><img class=" wp-image-3569 alignright" style="padding-bottom: 10px;" alt="EG Forest Atlas" src="https://dev-global-forest-watch-blog.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Forest-Atlas.png" width="100%"> Forest Atlases are customizable in order to best suit each country's needs. </div>



<p>A model like<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" WRI’s Forest Atlas (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.wri.org/our-work/project/forest-atlases" target="_blank"> WRI’s Forest Atlas</a>, which provides freely accessible infrastructure for online platforms that are hosted within and owned by national institutions, offers a solution for cocoa monitoring at a national scale. By combining official government data on land use with national and global datasets on forest change, this platform could enable CFI monitoring and management by governments. </p>



<p>The CFI’s industry wide commitment&nbsp;to collaborative&nbsp;and&nbsp;robust monitoring solutions is a commendable first step&nbsp;in combatting deforestation.&nbsp;With monitoring systems in place, CFI signatories will be able to&nbsp;effectively&nbsp;measure and&nbsp;manage&nbsp;impacts from the cocoa sector. WRI looks forward to continuing to support&nbsp;positive change&nbsp;for&nbsp;West Africa and&nbsp;around the globe,&nbsp;so that consumers can rest easy knowing no forests were harmed in the making of that chocolate bar.&nbsp;</p>



<hr> 

<div class="attribute" style="”padding-bottom:" 10px;”=""> 
BANNER PHOTO: Cocoa beans on a farm in Ghana. Photo by Caroline Winchester/WRI. 


</div> 

 

<hr>

Ever wonder where the chocolate in your&nbsp;candy bar&nbsp;came from? With 70 percent of the world’s cocoa produced by Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, chances

Keeping an Eye on Cocoa: Satellite Monitoring Provides Key Support on No Deforestation Commitments | Commodities | Global Forest Watch Blog

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Keeping an Eye on Cocoa: Satellite Monitoring Provides Key Support on No Deforestation Commitments