The cocoa sector faces growing regulatory expectations and increasing demands for transparency and consistency. WCF supports the sector by developing shared tools, methodologies and data frameworks that enable credible compliance and strengthen confidence across markets.
WCF supports the cocoa sector in responding to growing regulatory expectations by advancing shared tools, methodologies and approaches that promote greater consistency across markets
This work includes supporting alignment on definitions, indicators and measurement approaches, improving interoperability between relevant systems and advocating for stronger and more consistent data practices
By bringing together companies, origin-country stakeholders and other partners, WCF helps reduce duplication, strengthen regulatory readiness and support more transparent and comparable sustainability reporting.
Accuracy and consistency are essential to credibility. By strengthening quality and alignment across data, measurement and reporting approaches, WCF helps support sustainability claims grounded in comparable and verifiable evidence. This shared foundation enables better decision-making and builds trust with regulators, partners and the public.
High-quality data and robust methodologies are essential to understanding and addressing deforestation risk in cocoa supply chains.
WCF brings companies and technical partners together to advance practical, science-based approaches that support more consistent and accurate risk assessment, regulatory readiness and informed decision-making.
This work includes tools such as Active Deforestation Risk Assessment Methodology and Predictive Deforestation Risk Assessment Methodology, alongside the Forest Data Assessment, developed through WCF’s work to establish best practices and evaluate data and methods for forest monitoring. Together with future initiatives, these resources are designed to strengthen how the sector identifies, evaluates and responds to deforestation risk.
Consistent and credible greenhouse gas accounting is essential to understanding and reducing emissions across cocoa supply chains.
WCF supports the sector through the Cocoa GHG Accounting Methodology, which provides a common approach for measuring and accounting for greenhouse gas emissions in cocoa production and supply chains. The methodology helps companies strengthen emissions reporting, support informed climate action and align with relevant global frameworks and standards.
Protecting biodiversity is essential to the long-term resilience of cocoa landscapes and the communities that depend on them
WCF supports the sector in exploring practical and credible approaches to biodiversity monitoring, recognising the challenges of measuring change consistently across diverse farming and landscape contexts
This work includes consideration of forest cover and other indicators as potential proxies, alongside future approaches that can strengthen understanding, comparability and action across the sector
Understanding cocoa household income is essential to assessing farmer resilience, identifying barriers to economic security and designing more effective sustainability interventions.
WCF supports the development and use of consistent methodologies that help companies and other stakeholders measure household income more accurately and respond to evolving due diligence expectations, including under the CSDDD.
This work includes the publicly available Cocoa Household Income Study (CHIS) methodology and future initiatives to strengthen comparable and evidence-based approaches across the sector.
Traceability is increasingly becoming the foundation for broader supply chain due diligence-not only establishing where cocoa comes from, but also how it is produced. WCF supports the development of practical, credible methodologies and tools to help the sector measure and address key sustainability issues, including deforestation risk, household incomes, and greenhouse gas accounting.
Collaboration and interoperable approaches across companies, governments and technical experts are essential to building effective, scalable systems. WCF brings these stakeholders together to develop best practices that strengthen due diligence, support regulatory compliance and drive meaningful sustainability outcomes.
