The first meeting sought to identify progress and coordinate actions to establish an action plan.
This Thursday, August 12, the first meeting of the members of the Cocoa, Forests and Diversity Agreement. This space was used to report on the coordination and first actions that the Coalition for Sustainable Production has carried out in the implementation process.
During the meeting Fabiola Muñoz, Coordinator of the Coalition for Sustainable Production, emphasized the importance of the research component of the agreement as a tool to generate evidence for decision making for the private and public sectors. "The forests and diversity agreement is one of the Coalition's most important milestones. This is a work that is focused on joining efforts, learning from each other and generating synergies".
The work process of the agreement seeks to contribute to the development of the cocoa production chain under a low-emissions approach. Muñoz stressed that the process must be clear on the importance of scientific evidence to make better decisions in the public and private sectors.
Among the agreements and next steps are the following:
- Implementation plan: This plan will be led by the organization Solidaridad. This technical team will contact all members of the Agreement to gather expectations and recommendations.
- Traceability plan: The organization Proforest is conducting a pilot, in alliance with Acopagro, to adapt the SEP (Sustainable Engagement Platform) platform for self-analysis and information to manage deforestation risk at the farm/producer level. The possibility of other cooperatives and companies joining the pilot is open.
- Pilot implementation at the jurisdictional level: The consortium formed by Earth Innovation InstituteEarthworm and Helvetas are designing a jurisdictional sustainability pilot in Tocache, San Martin based on the cocoa value chain. The work consists of mapping and involving stakeholders, designing a shared vision and action plan, and identifying investment opportunities for 3 organizations or companies in the area linked to cocoa.
- Technical facilitation: Solidaridad will assume the technical facilitation of the Agreement by providing resources for a team to lead the dialogue, coordination of actions and mobilization of resources for a period of two years. CIAT - Bioversity offered support to add resources to carry out dialogues on reference year, monitoring and operational definition of deforestation-free.
The agreement has the following commitments:
- Introduce deforestation risk analysis and management in our supply chains.
- Promote productive intensification and restoration of degraded areas.
- Value chain monitoring and traceability
- Incentive package and commitments for producers
- Positioning in the differentiated cocoa markets
- Global communication and positioning
- Knowledge generation and transmission
