Cocoa sustainability programmes should publish internal audit results so outsiders can assess whether their monitoring systems deliver truthful reporting, the lead author of a new study has told CocoaRadar.
The call shifts attention from how much farm data companies collect to whether they can demonstrate that the information is credible – and that checks designed to protect its integrity actually work.
“Most certification systems include audits, but without public information on their findings and effectiveness, it is difficult to determine whether these audits are sufficient to ensure truthful reporting,” Federico Cammelli said.
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His research with Johan Six and Rachael Garrett, published in Science, examined a shade-tree planting programme involving 407 cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire. Manipulation appeared in 25% of field verification reports when data collectors knew the compliance threshold. Withholding that information reduced the figure to 11%, according to the study’s public data archive.
The result offers a relatively simple safeguard for sustainability monitoring. But Cammelli argues that wider progress requires transparency about conflicts of interest, evidence that verification works and greater engagement with the farmers expected to comply.
Anthony Myers