A legal pathway to sustainable cocoa in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire - Introduction

ClientEarth’s Ghanaian and Ivorian partners – TaylorCrabbe Initiative and Dr. Raphaël Kra – have undertaken legal research on cocoa production and marketing in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. The objective of this research is to provide:

1. A better understanding of the national legal and institutional frameworks currently regulating cocoa production and trade in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire
2. Identification of the loopholes and possible governance, legal and policy reform solutions for the major social and environmental costs of cocoa production at national level
3. A better understanding of the potential impacts of the upcoming regulations in the EU & the UK, and an exploration of what more could be done by consumer countries

This research will be published as a series of articles.

Our first set of papers outline the legal and institutional framework for the production and trade of cocoa in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (published in July 2022 on Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire).

The second set of papers summarises what national stakeholders have identified as the major social and environmental concerns with cocoa production and trade in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and proposes legal reform recommendations to tackle the identified loopholes in national law and policy (published in October 2022). French translations on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are also available.

The third paper explores (i) how the upcoming EU and UK regulations may already incentivise some of the solutions to the social and environmental concerns identified in the proposed reforms to the Ghanaian & Ivorian legal frameworks, and (ii) what more consumer countries could do to support these much-needed reforms in Ghana and in Côte d’Ivoire. French translations on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are also available.