Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the commitments made at COP26, what recent progress has been made on providing extra funding for cocoa farmers working to prevent deforestation on their lands.

The UK works with cocoa farmers to improve livelihoods and prevent deforestation through Partnerships for Forests (P4F) (£120 million, 2015-23). P4F is a global programme which supports partnerships between companies, farmers and communities, piloting new approaches to growing crops like palm oil, cocoa and soya while improving livelihoods and protecting and restoring forests.

Cocoa sector support includes funding to the Cocoa and Forest Initiative. UK funds enable the implementation of agreements between the global cocoa industry and the Ghanaian and Ivoirian governments, helping farmers to improve practices and eliminate deforestation from the cocoa supply. P4F also funds landscape-scale partnerships between companies, communities and government agencies, which provide farmers with help to increase productivity and grow deforestation-free, climate smart cocoa. At COP26, the UK announced a £500 million, ten-year second phase of support to Partnerships for Forests, building on the experience of the first phase of the programme. Work is now underway to put this new funding commitment into place.