Worldwatch Paper #168: Venture Capitalism for a Tropical Forest: Cocoa in the Mata Atlantica

December 2003
Chris Bright and Radhika Sarin
ISBN: 1-878071-72-6
69 pages

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The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the world's biological "hotspots," a region of extraordinary, and threatened, biodiversity. Saving the Atlantic Forest will require a variety of strategies. An approach described in this paper hinges on one of the world's favorite foods: cocoa. Cocoa is a major crop in Brazil, especially in the northeastern state of Bahia, where most cocoa is grown in a longstanding agroforestry system called cabruca. Because cocoa trees tolerate shade, cabruca permits preservation of much natural forest. But the cabruca system itself is now in decline. A revived and modernized form of cabruca would promote the ecological goal of forest restoration, the social goal of creating a strong and green rural economy, and the political goal of building an international consumer constituency for the endangered forest.

Summary

The Chocolate Forest

Why Cocoa?

Why Bahia?

On the Farm

From Farm to Market

Appendix

Endnotes

Index

Figure 1: The Mata Atlântica Biome

Figure 2: World Cocoa Trading Prices, Production,Grindings, and Area Harvested, 1961–2002

Figure 3: The Top 10 Cocoa Producers, 1993 and 2002

Figure 4: Countries That Have Harvested at Least 100,000 Hectares of Cocoa at Least Once During the Period 1993–2002

Figure 5: How Cocoa Is Processed

Table: Cocoa Culture in Major Producing Countries: Some Important Factors

Sidebar: Constructive Cocoa Elsewhere: A Few Examples