THE COMMODITY ISSUE
THIS
BAR
PROTECTS
BIRDS
A driver of deforestation, chocolate may be even
more of a guilty pleasure than you thought. But in
Indonesia, one cocoa collective is protecting forests
while lifting local people out of poverty. Dig in…
Jessica Law
hat’s destroying our rainforests?
You’ve probably heard of the main
culprits: logging, cattle farming and
palm oil plantations get a lot of press.
But you may not know that your lunchtime
chocolate bar also takes a heavy toll on the
environment. In fact, this year cocoa production
was listed in the top eight commodities driving
deforestation in the tropics.
This may sound surprising, especially
since cocoa is often marketed as a tropical
plant harvested from within the forest itself.
Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Local
farmers, driven by poverty, frequently fell forest
to create intensive cocoa plantations. This
threat is hard to track or control because it is
not driven by a single company clearing large
areas, but numerous smallholders encroaching
gradually year on year. In short, rainforests are
experiencing death by a thousand cuts.
Chocolate lovers may be disheartened by this
news – but there is another way. The farmers
of Makarti Jaya village in Sulawesi, Indonesia
are part of an exciting new initiative that is
lifting them out of poverty while protecting the
verdant Randangan forest.
W
Within this forest can be found two stunning
species of hornbill: the Knobbed Hornbill
Rhyticeros cassidix and Sulawesi Hornbill
Rhabdotorrhinus exarhatus, both Vulnerable
species found only in Sulawesi. Hornbills play an
important part in the culture of the island: the
people of Gorontalo believe that they protect
humans and ward off evil spirits. However,
the hornbills cannot protect themselves from
habitat destruction.
Without access to agricultural training, local
people used to get low yields from their cocoa
plantations. Pests destroyed the pods, and the
excessive use of chemical fertilizer sapped the
soil of its nutrients. It seemed the only option
was to cut down more forest and expand into
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BIRDLIFE • JUL-SEP 2019