Biodiversity impacts of cocoa cultivation : an assessment with LCA and DOPA approaches

Biodiversity loss is recognised as one of the top risks that humanity is facing. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 highlights the need to better integrate biodiversity considerations into decision-making, and commits to the development of methods to measure the environmental footprint of products and organisations. In the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), several methods have been developed to assess biodiversity loss, but a consensus on the most appropriate method is lacking. In this study, two LCA methods focusing on land use impacts were selected to compare biodiversity impacts of cocoa cultivation across different cultivation systems and countries. Biodiversity impacts obtained with the two LCA methods were compared with country rankings in terms of potential biodiversity impacts obtained with the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA). Results indicate that, according to the two LCA approaches considering land occupation and transformation as pressures, agroforestry has a higher biodiversity impact per kg of cocoa produced than more intensive cultivation systems, which contradicts some findings from the scientific literature. Further, country rankings in terms of potential biodiversity impacts due to cocoa cultivation differ between LCA and DOPA approaches. These findings are extensively discussed to identify main challenges and possible ways forward. LCA and DOPA are complementary to assess biodiversity impacts due to cocoa cultivation, which would further benefit from field studies.