The DOMVS Almanac_issue #2_Spring 2021

A farmer stands next to a cocoa sapling in Leuser National Park, Sumatra
The Jungle VIPs
Chococo Co-Founder, Andy Burnett, explains how chocolate is saving Sumatran orangutans
Since December 2018, Chococo has been proudly
supporting the work of the Sumatran Orangutan Society
(SOS). Fellow Dorset-based business, Lush, has been
supporting SOS for many years. They kindly allowed
us to adapt their orangutan soap mould to create a
chocolate version, which we christened ‘Tuan’, meaning
‘Sir’ in Malay. For every chocolate Tuan sold (and
Tuantoo, his vegan counterpart), we send £3.50 to SOS,
who have recently confirmed that our contributions
to them have now funded a total of 5,401 cocoa tree
seedlings to be planted in Sumatra.
By supporting the work of SOS, we are helping them
re-forest areas of rainforest destroyed by illegal palm
oil plantations. While Chococo never has or will use
palm oil in our chocolate, it is, sadly, present in a lot of
industrially produced chocolate. There are only c14,000
Sumatran orangutans left in the wild, and we simply
cannot stand by and watch the disastrous effects this
intensive monoculture is having on both their habitat
and the climate. Re-wilding by planting trees is a global
challenge for which we are all responsible, and we want
to do something positive to help.
As SOS say, “Orangutans spend their lives in the trees.
Deforestation is the greatest threat to their survival,
so protecting and restoring their habitat is absolutely
crucial. We are working with frontline partners to
protect the last standing forests in Sumatra, and restore
damaged ecosystems. The ecosystem restoration
programme is operated by our partners, the Orangutan
Information Centre (OIC), with a team of local staff and
farmers. The restoration sites are located within the
Leuser ecosystem, a protected area, and are repairing
damage to the forest caused by illegal activities –
primarily the clearing of forest for oil palm plantations.
As well as restoring lost habitat and reinforcing national
park boundaries, these projects engage local people
in grassroots conservation action. Strong roots in the
community are absolutely essential for this work to
succeed, and the groups we work with have become the
guardians of the forests, protecting the ecosystem from
future threats.”
The damage that is done to the local ecosystem is
captured in this quote from a local farmer who is now
one of the guardians of the forest, “When the forest
was replaced with oil palms, the water dried up for
miles around. Since embarking on the restoration of the
ecosystem, our rivers have returned and we
can once again hear bird song. We are committed to
protect Leuser from any further damage.” - Pak Baron,
Protectors of Leuser.
We are helping the team at Bukit Mas Permaculture
Centre (BPC) on the edge of Leuser National Park in
the north of Sumatra to plant cocoa saplings. This
100-hectare, formerly an oil palm plantation, is now in
the hands of conservationists and permaculture experts.
The oil palm trees have been cut down, and work is
well underway to turn this piece of land into something
wonderful. Bukit Mas, which means ‘golden hill’, is being
re-planted with indigenous tree saplings and important
cash crops such as chillies, aubergines and other
vegetables. In the nursery are more exotic crops such as
patchouli, ylang-ylang and now cocoa, for local farmers
taking part in OIC’s permaculture training programme.
Planting cocoa trees is just part of a wider project by
SOS to work with local communities. As the health
and prosperity of the people of Sumatra are linked
to the fate of the forests, SOS aims to develop both
conservation action plans and sustainable livelihoods.
The planting of cocoa saplings provides a long term
additional income stream for local farmers, and helps
discourage the destruction of forests for the short-term
profit of growing palm.
This is also a long term project for Chococo. It takes
five years for cocoa trees to mature enough to produce
cocoa pods. Only then can the pods be harvested for
the beans inside, which, once fermented and dried,
are processed and turned into chocolate. According to
the OIC team in Sumatra, orangutans love the taste
of freshly picked cocoa. They break open the pods to
expose the sweet, white flesh surrounding each cocoa
bean, which tastes like citrussy lychee - we can confirm
it is indeed delicious. We look forward to continuing to
build relationships with the SOS team, their partners
and farmers, and to being able to buy cocoa beans from
them to make officially orangutan-approved chocolate.
To learn more about SOS and to support their work by
purchasing your very own chocolate Tuan, please visit
the Chococo website at chococo.co.uk
You can also find us on Instragram at @chococochocolates
and on Facebook at facebook.com/ChococoChocolates
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