The ACOPAGRO cooperative has been involved in cultivating high-quality cacao in the Peruvian Amazon since the 1990s. Back then, cacao farming was supposed to replace the prevailing coca farming and counteract the violence it engenders. A commitment with success. Today, coca and violence have disappeared, and agroforestry systems with ecologically grown cacao dominate the region.
The ACOPAGRO cooperative, which provides HALBA with its Peruvian cacao, initiated a CO2 offsetting project with PurProjet and local partner to protect the Amazonian rainforest against deforestation. Trees are planted in the ACOPAGRO and Oro Verde cacao cooperatives in return for the sale of CO2-neutral chocolate, which HALBA produces for interested customers. Thanks to the project in the Alto Huayabamba region, which is only accessible by boat, a total of 380,000 hectares of rainforest was preserved.
This climate protection project, which is certified according to the well-known Verified Carbon Standard, promotes not only biodiversity and land regeneration, but also offers farmers a new source of income. The cooperative can sell the sequestered CO2 as part of the international emissions trading, since around 700,000 tonnes of CO2 is stored thanks to high-grade timber trees. As part of this project, HALBA also offsets emissions from chocolate products bearing the Carbon Neutral Product label. To do so, we calculate the CO2 footprint of the respective products and have them verified by myclimate, an accredited foundation.