Ghana - Annual embedded cocoa deforestation
Years available: 2014-2021
Data last updated: 28 Jul 2025
This metric estimates the annual amount of undisturbed forest converted to cocoa plantations that is associated with cocoa production and exports in a selected year and department (Renier et al., 2023; Vancutsem et al., 2021). To estimate the deforestation associated with cocoa exports in a given year, we apply a four-year lag between cocoa planting and the first harvest, reflecting the time required for plantations to become productive. Cocoa deforestation in 2021 is therefore calculated as the area of undisturbed forest converted to cocoa plantations in 2017 at the location of cocoa production (Kalischek et al., 2023).
- (Kalischek et al., 2023; Vancutsem et al., 2021)
- Kalischek, N., Lang, N., Renier, C., Daudt, R. C., Addoah, T., Thompson, W., Blaser-Hart, W. J., Garrett, R., Schindler, K., & Wegner, J. D. (2023). Cocoa plantations are associated with deforestation in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Nature Food, 4(5), 384–393. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00751-8
- Vancutsem, C., Achard, F., Pekel, J.-F., Vieilledent, G., Carboni, S., Simonetti, D., Gallego, J., Aragão, L. E. O. C., & Nasi, R. (2021). Long-term (1990–2019) monitoring of forest cover changes in the humid tropics. Science Advances, 7(10), eabe1603. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe1603
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