After reading this, you might just find that the next bite of your favorite chocolate leaves a bitter taste. The world's craving for chocolate is killing monkeys, apes, and chimpanzees. Illegal cocoa farms are threatening Ivory Coast primates on an unprecedented scale. In 13 of 23 recently surveyed protected areas, every single primate has been wiped out.
The researchers, from The Ohio State University, carried out their survey of supposedly protected areas of the West African nation between 2010 and 2013.
W. Scott McGraw, co-author of the study and professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University, said the original goal of this research was "just to do a census of the monkeys in these protected areas." But McGraw and his team were stunned to find that about three-quarters of the land in those areas had been transformed into cocoa production.
The Ivory Coast is already the world's largest producer of cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate, and provides more than one-third of the world's supply.
"The world's demand for chocolate has been very hard on the endangered primates of Ivory Coast," said McGraw. "But when we started walking through these areas we were just stunned by the scale of illegal cocoa production. It is now the major cause of deforestation in these parks. There are parks in Ivory Coast with no forests and no primates, but a sea of cocoa plants." Full story...
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The researchers, from The Ohio State University, carried out their survey of supposedly protected areas of the West African nation between 2010 and 2013.
W. Scott McGraw, co-author of the study and professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University, said the original goal of this research was "just to do a census of the monkeys in these protected areas." But McGraw and his team were stunned to find that about three-quarters of the land in those areas had been transformed into cocoa production.
The Ivory Coast is already the world's largest producer of cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate, and provides more than one-third of the world's supply.
"The world's demand for chocolate has been very hard on the endangered primates of Ivory Coast," said McGraw. "But when we started walking through these areas we were just stunned by the scale of illegal cocoa production. It is now the major cause of deforestation in these parks. There are parks in Ivory Coast with no forests and no primates, but a sea of cocoa plants." Full story...
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- Child slavery, the dark side of chocolate...
- Why chocolate really is the secret to happiness...
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