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STORY: UNEP / CAMEROON INDIGENOUS COCOA FARMERS
TRT: 05:25
SOURCE: UNEP / AFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / BAKA / NATS
DATELINE: VARIOUS DATES / YAOUNDE, CAMEROON / MINTOM, CAMEROON / FILE
FILE – AFP – VARIOUS DATES AND LOCATIONS
1. Various shots, chocolate and chocolate shops in Europe
FILE – AFP – ECUADOR
2. Various shots, cocoa production
FILE – AFP – CAMEROON
3. Various shots, cocoa beans being sorted
GRAPHIC
4. Chocolate bar with price of cocoa in 2024 rising from $3/KG to nearly $8/kg
UNDATED - YAOUNDE, CAMEROON
5. Aerial shot, Yaoundé
UNDATED - DJA RIVER, CAMEROON
5. Aerial shot, Dja River
UNDATED - SANGMELIMA, CAMEROON
6. Various shots, cocoa bean drying and packaging in Sangmelima, Cameroon
UNDATED - MINTOM, CAMEROON
7. Aerial shot, rainforest
8. Various shots, cocoa producers
9. SOUNDBITE (Baka) René Etoua Meto’o, 26-year-old Cocoa Farmer:
“When I get to the cocoa stalks, I look to see which ones are already flowering and which ones are not.”
10. Various shots, René at home with family, drying cocoa beans, grinding fresh cocoa beans, studying trees in forest
11. SOUNDBITE (Baka) René Etoua Meto’o, 26-year-old Cocoa Farmer:
“We live with the forest and the forest lives with us. And now we live off the forest. When we take care of the forest it also provides for us and helps our cocoa farms thrive.”
12. Various shots, biodiversity in forest, René caring for cocoa tree.
UNDATED - YAOUNDE, CAMEROON
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“Indigenous People, like the Baka community in Cameroon, are the guardians of the forest. They have been maintaining the forest for centuries. They live in the forest, they live around the forests, and they really depend on it for their food."
UNDATED - MINTOM, CAMEROON
14. Various shots, René and his family in their village.
UNDATED - YAOUNDE, CAMEROON
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“They are facing some challenges with deforestation growing, especially with industrial agriculture and concession, logging companies and so on.”
UNDATED - MINTOM, CAMEROON
16. Various shots, sustainable cocoa production
UNDATED - SANGMELIMA, CAMEROON
17. Various shots, cocoa facility
UNDATED - YAOUNDE, CAMEROON
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“One of the key elements of the Rainforest Alliance certification is the protection of natural forests. By avoiding deforestation, we are maintaining the habitats for endangered species, for the high biodiversity we have in the Congo Basin. And by doing this, we are also maintaining cultural geography of Indigenous communities.”
UNDATED - MINTOM, CAMEROON
19. Wide shot, cocoa production
UNDATED - SANGMELIMA, CAMEROON
20. Various shots, cocoa drying and sorting
UNDATED - YAOUNDE, CAMEROON
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Tessa Claude Ndala Mayouya, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“The Congo Basin Landscape Initiative supports countries like Cameroon and the other seven by ensuring the protection of the environment and sustainable development. So, we're helping them understand the principle that people need nature to thrive. To understand also that frontiers don't really apply to forests. Indigenous people are very important in protecting ecosystems. They are the guardians of these forests, especially in the Congo Basin. The traditional knowledge, and the way they relate to these forests is very important. And we can learn a lot from them.”
UNDATED - CAMEROON
22. Various shots, cocoa bean being sorted, Rainforest alliance sign
UNDATED - YAOUNDE, CAMEROON
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“When you buy a bar of chocolates with the green frog, you are not just buying chocolates. You are ensuring that they will continue to produce while conserving biodiversity, while protecting the forest.”
UNDATED - MINTOM, CAMEROON
24. Various shots, cocoa producers
UNDATED - SANGMELIMA, CAMEROON
25. Various shots, cocoa exporters
UNDATED - MINTOM, CAMEROON
26. Aerial shot, rainforest
In the heart of Cameroon’s cacao country, Indigenous Baka communities are proving that sustainable farming can protect both livelihoods and wildlife. René Etoua Meto’o, a 26-year-old father of three, once struggled to make ends meet near the Dja Faunal Reserve.
Meto’o produces premium cocoa without cutting down a single tree.
Supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Environment Facility, the Congo Basin Landscapes Initiative is helping local farmers to increase yields while safeguarding the rainforest - one of the world’s largest carbon sinks and home to elephants, chimpanzees, and over 11,000 species.
The Congo Basin Landscapes Initiative is a regional effort to uphold Indigenous rights, halt deforestation, and bring the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to life.
Because people need nature to thrive.
Between 2023 and 2024, the price of cocoa shot up from around USD three dollars per kilogram to almost eight dollars per kilogram.
For countries like Cameroon, that’s good news. cocoa here accounts for around 12 percent of annual exports.
But the high prices also bring pressure for deforestation in the country’s rainforests where much of its cocoa is farmed.
This is putting the biodiversity of these rainforests and the Indigenous communities who depend on them, at risk.
SOUNDBITE (Baka) René Etoua Meto’o, 26-year-old Cocoa Farmer:
“When I get to the cocoa stalks, I look to see which ones are already flowering and which ones are not.”
René Etoua Meto’o and his family are indigenous cocoa producers from the Baka community, which inhabits forested areas throughout Central Africa.
He depends on the rainforest for income from cocoa cultivation as well as for food and medicine.
It is central to his community and their lives.
SOUNDBITE (Baka) René Etoua Meto’o, 26-year-old Cocoa Farmer:
“We live with the forest and the forest lives with us. And now we live off the forest. When we take care of the forest it also provides for us and helps our cocoa farms thrive.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“Indigenous People, like the Baka community in Cameroon, are the guardians of the forest. They have been maintaining the forest for centuries. They live in the forest, they live around the forests, and they really depend on it for their food."
SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“They are facing some challenges with deforestation growing, especially with industrial agriculture and concession, logging companies and so on.”
UNEP – and the Global Environment Facility – GEF – convene the Congo Basin Landscapes Initiative.
Working with partners, the initiative helps communities like René’s to take advantage of higher prices through more sustainable farming practices.
The training and equipment provided through the programme focuses on intensification and improving yields in existing farms.
And it disincentivises the “slash and burn” practices involved in the creation of new farms spurring deforestation and putting biodiversity at risk.
A UNEP and GEF partner, the Rainforest Alliance reports that participating farmers have increased yields in existing cocoa farms by as much as 100 per cent while preventing further destruction of biodiverse rainforest areas.
The Rainforest Alliance is also working with global cocoa buyers to reward farmers’ efforts to protect forests and biodiversity with higher prices through a certification process.
Rainforest Alliance certified chocolate, including cocoa from René’s farm, can now be found all over the world.
SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“One of the key elements of the Rainforest Alliance certification is the protection of natural forests. By avoiding deforestation, we are maintaining the habitats for endangered species, for the high biodiversity we have in the Congo Basin. And by doing this, we are also maintaining cultural geography of Indigenous communities.”
This global cocoa gold rush poses a vital question for Cameroon.
How does a nation grow and prosper, while protecting the very environment that gives it life?
SOUNDBITE (English) Tessa Claude Ndala Mayouya, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“The Congo Basin Landscape Initiative supports countries like Cameroon and the other seven by ensuring the protection of the environment and sustainable development. So, we're helping them understand the principle that people need nature to thrive. To understand also that frontiers don't really apply to forests. Indigenous people are very important in protecting ecosystems. They are the guardians of these forests, especially in the Congo Basin. The traditional knowledge, and the way they relate to these forests is very important. And we can learn a lot from them.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Nadège Nzoyem, Senior Director for West and Central Africa, Rainforest Alliance:
“When you buy a bar of chocolates with the green frog, you are not just buying chocolates. You are ensuring that they will continue to produce while conserving biodiversity, while protecting the forest.”
