How cocoa drives forest loss in West Africa and the GDP hit nature loss could cause to the UK economy

In this newsletter, we highlight the Global Canopy tools and data being used to drive change for nature. From new research by Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade on the extent of #deforestation linked to cocoa production in C?te d'Ivoire, to the use of our ENCORE platform in a first-of-its-kind report by Green Finance Institute. Also, we celebrate one man’s 3,000-mile row across the Atlantic to fundraise for Global Canopy.

How much deforestation is in your chocolate?

?? New research by Trase reveals every year approximately 110,000 hectares of tropical moist forest in C?te d’Ivoire is cut down to make way for cocoa plantations – an area almost the size of New York City. Some 1.65 million hectares of forest have been lost to cocoa expansion in C?te d’Ivoire over 15 years, accounting for 45% of total tropical forest loss in the country.

???? ???? The European Union and Switzerland, as the world’s largest importers of cocoa from C?te d’Ivoire, are linked to around 800,000 hectares of tropical deforestation, according to the analysis. And three quarters of all the cocoa-related deforestation comes from just six companies: Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Olam, Ecom, Sucden and Touton. Read more in our Explainer and explore the data now.

Case study: AdAstra uses Trase to power action on carbon emissions from land conversion

Consultancy AdAstra Sustainability used Trase data to help a leading food manufacturer understand how soy in animal feed changes the carbon footprint of its chicken products. AdAstra was able to identify the origins of the soy and calculated corresponding land conversion emission factors at subnational level with their data solution Orbae. Read the case study now.

??"Our work with AdAstra demonstrates how Trase data can be embedded into third-party products, multiplying its impact by reaching hundreds of companies who need to address their scope 3 emissions from land conversion, demonstrating the contribution they are making to ending deforestation and reducing the impacts of climate change.”

- Michael Lathuilliere , supply chain lead, Trase

Green Finance Institute uses ENCORE in report on UK economy

ENCORE, a free online tool developed in partnership with Global Canopy, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and UNEP-WCMC, enables organisations to explore their exposure to nature-related risk and take the first steps to understand their dependencies and impacts on nature.

Nature loss could represent a 12% loss to GDP in the years ahead, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of the UK economy’s risks and dependencies on nature.

The Green Finance Institute (GFI) study used data from ENCORE as a cornerstone of their methodology. That 12% loss is larger than the hit the UK faced from the global financial crisis or Covid-19, highlighting the urgent need to acknowledge and address these risks to strengthen the UK’s economic and financial resiliency.

Henry Cheape’s Atlantic row for Global Canopy

And finally, a tale of an epic seven week solo row across the Atlantic. Scottish businessman Henry Cheape broke the record for the fastest Scot to row the Atlantic solo - an impressive 3,000-mile challenge known as ‘the world’s toughest row’. Henry raised over ￡100,000 for environmental sustainability charities, including Global Canopy.

To say thank you, Global Canopy held an event to celebrate Henry’s remarkable achievement. His generosity helps make our work possible!

Discussing the motivation for his challenge, Henry said: "The importance of a sustainable future for farming and our planet is non-negotiable....The three charities I’m raising money for are all delivering transformational change – demonstrating that it can be done."

Best wishes, Global Canopy