The park is one of the last major remnants of the vast primary tropical forest that once spanned across present-day Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and is the largest island of forest remaining in West Africa, according to the Unesco World Heritage Centre.
As part of a comprehensive multi-stakeholder initiative to conserve the forest’s biodiversity, cocoa farmers in the rural areas bordering the park are being offered training in sustainable cocoa production.
Barry Callebaut, which has worked with cocoa farmers and cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire since 2005, is conducting the training programme that will enable approximately 2,000 farmers from five cooperatives to comply with the environmental, social and economic criteria defined by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) standards and become Rainforest Alliance Certified.
In cooperation with the Rainforest Alliance, Barry Callebaut is also establishing nurseries for indigenous shade trees, launching a tree planting program, creating nurseries for cocoa seedlings, and setting up demonstration plots to showcase good agricultural practices.
Source: Barry Callebaut
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