Is chocolate in the UK linked to deforestation?
What your Easter egg really costs.
UK chocolate and deforestation: what’s the connection?
Chocolate is one of life’s genuine pleasures. We’re not here to argue about that.
But did you know the cocoa in most UK chocolate can still be linked to deforestation?
As cocoa prices rice, rainforests continue to be cleared for the increasing demand for palm oil in UK chocolate. Communities are being displaced and Indigenous land taken. And the UK has a law sitting on a shelf that was supposed to stop it.
The UK law that was supposed to fix deforestation in chocolate supply chains
In 2021, Parliament passed Schedule 17 of the Environment Act. It requires companies to check their supply chains aren’t sourcing from illegally deforested land. Cocoa, soy, palm oil, beef are all included. Nearly five years on, the Government still hasn’t brought it into force.
In that time, UK imports have been linked to 6,183 hectares of cocoa-driven forest loss. That’s not an abstract number. That’s nearly 9,000 football pitches of real rainforest. Real damage that a working law could help to prevent.
The goal is good supply chains, not less chocolate.
We’re working to change things. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Deforestation is holding an event at the House of Commons to formally launch the UK Cocoa Coalition and demand government action.
Politicians, businesses, cocoa producers, and civil society organisations will be in the same room, making the same ask: implement Schedule 17, align with the EU Deforestation Regulation, and end the uncertainty that’s bad for forests and bad for business.
Businesses and NGOs are calling for deforestation-free chocolate supply chains.
The organisations calling for change is wide.
Sainsbury’s, M&S, Waitrose, Ferrero, Tony’s Chocolonely are just some of the retailers and manufacturers on board. So are 10 UK NGOs, including Cool Earth, through the NGO Forest Coalition.
As our Advocacy and Engagement Executive, Natalie Klepacova, puts it: “Cocoa production should not come at the cost of forests or the people who depend on them. The UK government must put in place robust regulations to ensure that the chocolate on our shelves is free from deforestation and human rights abuses, particularly those affecting Indigenous and local rainforest communities. We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the damage caused by unregulated supply chains.“
What you can do about UK chocolate and deforestation right now.
We back Indigenous and local communities to protect rainforest. That’s why we’re pushing for systemic change that stops deforestation being a built-in feature of a chocolate bar.
The fix is closer than it looks. Write to your MP today. Ask them to sign the open letter to the Secretaries of State for Business and the Environment, calling for Schedule 17 to be brought into force. It takes two minutes.
Eat the Easter egg. But write the email too. The rainforest will thank you.