Chocolate industry killing Ivory Coast's forests, report warns

Abidjan, West Africa

THE chocolate industry is indirectly driving massive and illegal deforestation in Ivory Coast, fuelling a catastrophic decline in wildlife, a green group said on Wednesday.

"In several national parks and other protected areas, 90 per cent or more of the land mass has been converted to cocoa," the group Mighty Earth said in its investigation.

"Less than 4 per cent of Ivory Coast remains dens…