"Instead of viewing cocoa as a problem, we consider it as a key to restoring dynamic, forest-like ecosystems."
Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa
Tackling Challenges Together
The consulting firm ECOTOP, which advises some members of the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO) on dynamic agroforestry, became a member of our community last year. In the interview below, Co-Founder and Managing Director Joachim Milz talks about a necessary paradigm shift in the cultivation of cocoa.
Joachim Milz, what do you expect from the membership in the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa?
We at ECOTOP began practising sustainable cocoa cultivation in Bolivia over 25 years ago, focusing on dynamic agroforestry. ECOTOP Suisse GmbH was established in 2018.
ECOTOP also advise several members of SWISSCO on dynamic agroforestry in projects in Ghana and C?te d'Ivoire. As SWISSCO is the most important body concerning cocoa in Switzerland, encompassing cultivation, research, processing, and marketing, we are eager to contribute our expertise. ?We look forward to exchanging ideas with the other SWISSCO members.
Where do you see ECOTOP’s greatest potential to contribute to our Roadmap goals of improving sustainability in the cocoa value chain?
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Inspired by Albert Einstein's wisdom – Problems cannot be solved with the same thinking that created them" – we believe it's time to fundamentally rethink our approach to cocoa cultivation. We want to encourage trying out approaches that may sometimes be contrary to the mainstream.
We don't have much time left to solve the increasing problems, and only together will we be able to respond adequately to these challenges with appropriate actions. And that means more than just planting a few trees in a cocoa plantation.
For a long time, cocoa cultivation has been seen as one of the main causes of deforestation. However, we see here an opportunity for a paradigm shift. Instead of viewing cocoa as a problem, we consider it as a key to restoring dynamic, forest-like ecosystems.
This also means a shift in our understanding of the cocoa complex. Our efforts should be focused on optimising the cultivation system, not just on maximising the yields of a particular crop. Families producing cocoa also need to produce food sustainably. This can no longer continue with slash-and-burn and the use of agrochemicals.
Hello, I am Bruno Devresse, executive director of APAF International. In a publication published under the following link, I intervene following your article. Given the lack of reaction from you, allow me to remind you kind regards https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/publication-from-director-apaf-international-following-letters-joachim-cc9yf/
APAF (Associations pour la promotion des arbres fertilitaires, de l'agroforesterie et la foresterie)
8 个月Hello, having not received any feedback from you, we are coming back to you to relaunch a necessary debate on agroforestry well suited to smallholder agriculture in Africa, for sustainable cocoa production.
APAF (Associations pour la promotion des arbres fertilitaires, de l'agroforesterie et la foresterie)
10 个月We completely agree that there needs a paradigm shift in cocoa cultivation. But the exemple of a Gmelina which fertilizes the soils and shades the cocoa trees, we find it poorly chosen. APAF plant also Gmelina but in forestry. Not in association with cocoa trees. In agroforestry systems with fertilizers trees that the APAF popularizes in the farmers fields, we use much more efficient trees as fertilizers. Trees they give a good shade, well adjusted. Fertilizers trees they have demonstrate great and good services in cocoa crops. I hope i don't offend anyone. Sorry if i do...
Co-Founder @ EcoEmpower Alliance | Country Manager @ Naturnova | Senior Field Coordinator @ PULA | Agri-Insurance | Climate Change Innovations | Global BFA TECA Fellow '24 | Cocoa Expert | Yield Data Expert
10 个月Awesome
Ingeniero Agrónomo | Independent Consultant
10 个月This shift is urgent and you are doing a terrific work. One key element is also to secure markets for other produces coming from the system, so the producers and their families would have access not only to more food but to diversify their incomes.