Was it produced legally? Due diligence on legal compliance – Côte d’Ivoire

The document examines the legal framework for cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire to guide EU companies in conducting due diligence under the EUDR. It highlights a significant gap between formal laws and the informal reality of smallholder farming, where 90% of cocoa is produced. Key risks include the widespread production of cocoa in protected "classified" forests, the use of unregistered pesticides, and high levels of child labour. The report notes that while trade and export are well-regulated by the Conseil Café-Cacao, production-level compliance is difficult to verify due to a lack of centralized land-use maps and the informality of land tenure and labour contracts.

• A significant portion of Ivorian cocoa is produced illegally in protected areas; the Conseil Café-Cacao (CCC) estimates that 30% of cocoa comes from "classified" forests where agricultural activities are prohibited.
• The Ivorian government's agroforestry scheme, intended to legalize production in degraded classified forests, has seen very limited implementation, with only three agroforests created out of approximately 85 eligible areas.
• Land tenure in the cocoa sector is highly informal; only about 3% of rural land is registered according to formal procedures, and land-use rights for agricultural purposes are rarely registered or formalized.
• There is a critical lack of public spatial data, as Côte d’Ivoire has no legal land-use map indicating zoning categories, making the exact delimitation of protected areas difficult to verify on the ground.
• The use of unregistered and illegal pesticides is widespread in the cocoa sector due to low farmer awareness, easy access to cheap substances, and weak enforcement.
• Child labour remains a pervasive risk in the cocoa supply chain, with a 2020 report estimating 790,000 children working in cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire.
• The ARS-1000 standard for sustainable cocoa, while mandatory in Côte d’Ivoire, is insufficient for EUDR compliance because it does not require compliance checks for all laws within the EUDR's legality scope.

APA

Rice, M., & Godts, R. (2025). Was it produced legally? Due diligence on legal compliance – Côte d’Ivoire. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/wnki1jbh/was-it-produced-legally_cote-divoire_clientearth_april-2025.pdf

Chicago

Rice, Michael, and Raphaëlle Godts. Was it produced legally? Due diligence on legal compliance – Côte d’Ivoire. ClientEarth, 2025. https://www.clientearth.org/media/wnki1jbh/was-it-produced-legally_cote-divoire_clientearth_april-2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rice |first1=Michael |last2=Godts |first2=Raphaëlle |title=Was it produced legally? Due diligence on legal compliance – Côte d’Ivoire |publisher=ClientEarth |date=April 2025 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/wnki1jbh/was-it-produced-legally_cote-divoire_clientearth_april-2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rice2025was, author = {Rice, Michael and Godts, Raphaëlle}, title = {{Was it produced legally? Due diligence on legal compliance – Côte d’Ivoire}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2025}, month = apr, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/wnki1jbh/was-it-produced-legally_cote-divoire_clientearth_april-2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }