Mesoamerican cacao heritage, due diligence compliance, ongoing research

What We're Doing

Dear colleagues,

Many of the finest pieces of art from Mesoamerica can only be seen outside of the region, in museums and private collections of North America, Europe, and East Asia. We are on a mission to change this. Over the past year, the FCCI team has worked to secure the repatriation of more than 50 ancient Mesoamerican pieces in collaboration with the governments of Mexico and Central America. These pieces will soon be on public display in museums throughout their home regions.

In advance of the return of these pieces to their countries of origin, we have partnered with several organizations to invite you to view these examples of priceless cultural heritage, celebrate their significance to the history of cacao and chocolate, and taste traditional cacao and chocolate recipes.?Join us in Boston, MA at Boston University this Friday, October 11, in Chelsea, MA at La Colaborativa on Saturday, October 12, and in New York City at the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) on Thursday, November 7, 2024. Stay tuned to our social media for more November event announcements as details become available.

Beyond our work toward repatriation, FCCI research team members are involved in ongoing projects such as our research on: transparency reporting with Uncommon Cacao,?benchmarking traceability and EUDR compliance solutions for cocoa, cocoa producer-focused climate policy in C?te d’Ivoire and Ghana, Black history at the Vassall Estate, and more.

Our current research brings us into partnership with Anecacao, Cacao Hunters, Cacao Para Todos, GIZ, GrupoTap, INATrace, International Trade Center,?Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Lutheran World Relief-MOCCA, Masienda, Museo Regional La Cacaotera, Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), National Council on Public History, National Park Service, Nuup Mexico, Nitidae, Oko Caribe, Republica del Cacao, Technoserve, Uncommon Cacao,?Université Félix Houphou?t-Boigny,?UNOCACE, USAID, VRAEM Project, Wedgetail, World Wildlife Fund, and many others.

Do you have an important question that calls for a rigorously researched, evidence-based answer? Reach out to start a conversation with our team!

Weekly, we hope that you will connect with us on social media. We post regularly on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and look forward to sharing more with you there.

Until soon,

The FCCI team?

What We're Reading

• “Cocoa-Based Tourism”: Exploring Tourists’ Image, Satisfaction and Loyalty Regarding a Cultural Heritage Destination
• Cocoa tree performance and yield are affected by seasonal rainfall reduction
• Complex cocoa agroforestry systems shaped within specific socioeconomic and historical contexts in Africa: Lessons from Cameroonian farmers
• Cultivating Pacific Cocoa: Chinese Plantation Labor in Colonial Era Samoa and Vanuatu
• Financial Inclusion and Its Implications for Cocoa Production in the Southwest Region of Cameroon
• First national mapping of cadmium in cacao beans in Colombia
• The future of Ghana's cocoa industry
• Identifying areas where biodiversity is at risk from potential cocoa expansion in the Congo Basin
• Impact of village savings and loans associations participation on cocoa farmers’ livelihood in the Western North Region, Ghana
• Multistakeholder Initiatives and Sustainability? A Governance Analysis using the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO) as a Case Study
• The political ecology of cocoa agroforestry and implications for equitable land use in rural Ghana
• A revisited history of cacao domestication in pre-Columbian times revealed by archaeogenomic approaches
• The role of landscape context in shaping bat assemblages in African cacao plantations
• Systematic mapping of global research on arthropods associated with cacao agroecosystem: trends and gaps
• Unmasking gender disparities in cocoa farming: the case of female land ownership in the Ashanti and Western North regions of Ghana
• What resilience theory and praxis can learn from multi-dimensional approaches to understanding poverty: A study of Ghanaian cocoa forest landscapes

FYI:?How to access paywalled research papers without institutional access

What We're Listening To/Watching

• Amitav Ghosh - How Capitalism Shaped the Opium Trade
• Sugar's Dark Shadow
• What's At Stake If?EUDR Fails

Thanks for reading our newsletter! Have a suggestion for future content? As always, we invite you to be in touch; email [email protected] and someone from our team will respond to you as soon as possible.