The government of Ivory Coast has started evacuating cocoa farmers from protected forest-land in an attempt to fight the clearing of rainforests for illegal cocoa plantations, according to EurActiv.com. While the goal is to protect the rainforest and comply with the European Union's Timber Regulation, the move has sparked human rights controversies.
Three quarters of the country's forests have disappeared in the last 50 years, primarily due to farming-cocoa plantations in particular, which represent about 10 percent of the country's economic output, says EurActiv. However, the government says it is willing to pay the economic price of phasing out agriculture to save the tropical forest.
Security forces began clearing out illegal farmsteads, flattening houses and forcibly removing farmers. Amid the evacuation come report of abuse at the hands of the security forces, including the looting, rape and theft of money and cocoa. The government has rejected the charges.
"There have been no cases of rape or violence," government spokesman Bruno Kone told EurActiv. "If they refuse to leave, if they are aggressive towards our agents, we reserve the right to respond."
Development workers familiar with the government's plans say long-term squatters will be allowed to keep to their plantations, as long as they live outside the protected land, until they are taken over by replanted hardwood and softwood trees.
