Cocoa planting is destroying protected forests in west Africa, study finds

Global trade in chocolate, worth more than $1tn a year, is leading to widespread deforestation in Ivory Coast and Ghana

The world’s hunger for chocolate is a major cause of the destruction of protected forests in west Africa, scientists have said.

Satellite maps of Ivory Coast and Ghana showed vast swathes of formerly dense forest had become cocoa plantations since 2000, according to a study.