The Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), a coalition of donors from Europe and South Korea, has approved a $20 million project to promote deforestation-free agroecological practices in Cameroon. This project, part of the Cameroon-CAFI partnership, will support the Cameroon Coffee and Cocoa Development Fund over the next three years with additional resources from the EU.
This initiative aligns with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires operators to ensure their products do not originate from recently deforested land or contribute to forest degradation. To facilitate compliance, Cameroon has established the Coffee and Cocoa Development Fund, known locally as the Fonds de Développement des Filières Café et Cacao (FODECC). Funded by a €12 million annual levy on cocoa and coffee exports, FODECC supports the geolocation of plots and the opening of accounts for 223,000 small-scale producers, providing subsidies to make their production processes more sustainable.