This World Chocolate Day, learn about how USAID’s HEARTH activities connect local cacao farmers to international corporations.

Chocolate can be even better when you know where it comes from. You may know that chocolate comes from the beans of cacao. The fruit’s bitter beans—through a culinary alchemy of fermenting, drying, roasting, and melting—are transformed into sweet, velvety chocolate.

You may also know that the cacao plant is native to Central and South America, where Indigenous Peoples have valued the cacao bean for centuries as both a commodity and as its own currency. But what do you and other chocolate lovers know about the communities that grow cacao today?

USAID, through our Health, Ecosystems, and Agriculture for Resilient Thriving Societies (HEARTH) program, is tackling these challenges in a big way. USAID recognizes that the goals of conserving biodiversity and critical ecosystems, and improving the well-being of local communities are inextricably linked. Humans support nature, and nature supports humans.

HEARTH aims to accomplish these goals by working with the private sector to co-invest in sustainable farming practices or alternative livelihoods. Private sector partners then build on USAID’s programming and initiatives to further advance biodiversity conservation, climate and health priorities, and global food security through the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative.

Currently, HEARTH is working with cacao farmers in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana. These countries account for over 70% of the global cacao market. Private sector partners include Akesson’s Organic, Beyond Good, Blommer Chocolate Company, Costco Wholesale, Guittard Chocolate, Lindt & Sprüngli AG, Mars Wrigley, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, Olam Food Ingredients (ofi), The Hershey Company, Outspan Limited PNG, and Sahanala.

On World Chocolate Day in 2021, USAID made its first HEARTH award to the TSIRO Alliance in Madagascar—a five-year partnership between USAID, Catholic Relief Services, and a group of the above private-sector companies—to strengthen cacao and spice supply chains while conserving biodiversity and improving the well-being of smallholder farmers and their communities.

Watch this video to learn more about the TSIRO Alliance. 

Her family relies on cacao to make a living. “It was from farming cacao that me and my husband were able to get additional income to pay for anything, including my children’s education and other expenses,” Ibu says.

Understanding the origin of the cacao in your chocolate is the first step to understanding how your purchasing decisions impact communities. It is not always easy—chocolate is a globalized market with many trading partners of buyers, sellers, and processors. Luckily, the challenge of tracing cacao through the supply chain can be made simpler.

“There are no middlemen. The beans are bought by the fermentary and directly supply the exporter,” says Victor Ganguly, Papua New Guinea business manager for ofi , a company that has been supporting farming communities through a traceability and sustainability initiative known as Cocoa Compass. The partnership is between Outspan PNG Limited, a subsidiary of the international food and agri-business Olam International, and farmers in the YUS Conservation Area, the oldest conservation area of Papua New Guinea.

The full scope of HEARTH activities, however, goes well beyond cacao farming. In addition to environmental sustainability and improved livelihoods in the cacao sector, the 17 HEARTH activities are also improving the sustainability of sea cucumber and seaweed farming in Madagascar; developing ecotourism in the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh; launching conservation educational entertainment in East Africa; and partnering with coffee growers to reduce poaching and deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

All HEARTH activities also develop rigorous plans for measuring and monitoring their efforts. Through formal research activities and more informal peer-to-peer sharing, HEARTH is an opportunity for the global development community to learn from experience and better understand how to serve communities while also benefiting the environment.

In the first two years of implementation, among many other achievements, it is estimated that the HEARTH portfolio has planted around 2.6 million trees, sequestering around 125,000 tons of CO2, the equivalent of removing around 30,000 cars from the road for one year.

By combining our partners’ resources and skills, USAID’s integrated programming increases investment and amplifies outcomes, helping communities conserve nature. In doing so, growing cacao can be a win-win for both communities and the environment.

So let’s do what we can to support the communities that are committed to sustaining nature and our sweet cravings, not just on World Chocolate Day, but every day.