Establishing a baseline for cocoa sector improvements around a valuable forest reserve engages smallholders in conservation dialogues and prepares the ground for significant sustainability improvements, and the end to the “Boom and Bust” cycle of cocoa production.

A new set of diagnostic and evaluation tools helps to identify the communities and farmers best suited for sustainability initiatives.

The Context

Cocoa farming typically follows a “boom and bust” cycle, with production peaking for a few decades and then dropping as cocoa trees become susceptible to disease and soil becomes exhausted. In an attempt to increase lagging yields, many farmers cut overstory trees, eliminating critical habitat and biodiversity.

In Bantaeng Regency, Indonesia, cocoa farming is on the cusp of a boom – and the Rainforest Alliance is helping farmers develop an environmentally sustainable, reliable supply of cocoa that will not go bust.There are many reasons to do so: Bantaeng’s poorer upstream communities abut the Gunung Lampobatang Protection Forest, the last remaining home of the endangered Lompobatang Flycatcher. The region’s headwaters also support extensive downslope rice fields, other crops, and coastal fisheries. Much is riding on the region’s continued ability to provide wildlife habitat, buffer neighboring protected areas and support downstream economic activity.

The Approach

The approach taken by the Rainforest Alliance involves training farmers on the Sustainable Agriculture Network’s cocoa standard, including methods to improve productivity and yield while simultaneously protecting biodiversity and water and improving health, income, and wellbeing for farmers and their families. In the words of one lead farmer: "Farmers like to cut down their trees when the price goes down and replace them with higher price commodities, but now I realized from what [the Rainforest Alliance] shared to us that with better crops management and integrating wood trees as shade trees I can have better outcomes and planting wood trees can also be a good investment for my children."

Critical to the Rainforest Alliance approach in Bantaeng is a new set of diagnostic and evaluation tools that helps identify the regions, communities, and farmers best suited for sustainability initiatives—as well as the most effective training and technical assistance investments. The methods focus on the pillars of sustainable development: productivity, farm profitability, natural resource sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and household livelihoods. A community mapping process establishes farm boundaries and identifies community needs and concerns. The “Household Economy Approach” methodology quantifies income streams, crop production, and food consumption to understand the drivers of poverty and vulnerability—data that clarify the opportunities and risks associated with cocoa intensification. Finally, the “Natural Ecosystem Assessment” surveys on-farm vegetation and the surrounding land-use context to provide a fine-scaled, sensitive set of proxy indicators of the landscape’s biodiversity value.

Establishing a Baseline

Baseline data collection for the above methods, now nearly completed, has provided valuable preliminary information. We have learned that cocoa farms in Bantaeng have relatively low productivity, with average yields of 360kg/hectare. Roughly half of surveyed farms in Bantaeng had one or more emergent (especially large) trees, which can provide critical habitat for birds, insects, and other taxa. Upcoming analyses of the baseline data will determine the contributions of cocoa farms to landscape-level conservation, household livelihoods, and much more.
 

Setting the Stage for Sustainable Cocoa

But just as important as the above results, the baseline data collection process has shown us that cocoa farmers and government agents in Bantaeng are enthusiastic about a sustainable cocoa sector and the role that Rainforest Alliance certification could play in improving yields, conserving biodiversity, and securing access to new markets. As the secretary of a local sub district commented, "We are glad that Rainforest Alliance is here to help the farmers not only with trainings but also with mentoring and developing market[s]." Better than anyone, these local people recognize the perils of a boom and bust cocoa sector -- and are keen to take action to prevent it.

 

Cocoa productivity depends greatly on the management of soil fertility, shade cover, pruning, and diseased pods. Field assessments pinpoint key actions needed to increase yields and sustainability.