The Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative celebrates key milestones and achievements

A commemorative publication for the launch of the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative is published today. It marks key milestones and achievements of the ten member countries in West and Central Africa to establish responsible production of agricultural commodities that protect forests, nature and livelihoods. ASCI marks a critical expansion of the Africa Palm Oil Initiative into a multi-commodity declaration, defining these principles of responsible production of cocoa, coffee, rubber, palm oil and more.

CoP26 (2021) marked five years since the signing of the Marrakesh Declaration for the Sustainable Production of Palm Oil, with a publication outlining progress and lessons learned shared by ministers. It was at this meeting that African Government Ministers gave APOI the mandate to engage with other commodities to ensure that all parties were working towards the same common goals, because working on palm oil in isolation was having less impact on deforestation and social and human rights issues than if they engaged with other commodities in the same production landscape.

The Declaration for the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative was signed at CoP27 in Egypt in November 2022. This also marked the first time Nigeria signed at a federal level, building from the foundations established in Edo State, along with Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, the Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone. These ten countries are critical for food security and production, smallholder livelihoods, as well as regional and global climate stability, accounting for 25% of the world’s forests and 75% of Africa’s forests.

The ten national platforms are currently working to engage with various commodity platforms in their country to explore synergies to implement the ASCI principles. The publication enables them to share the success of the Initiative with local and regional stakeholders, as well as the wider development and investment community, outlining the success of this multi-stakeholder partnership between governments, companies, Indigenous Peoples & local communities and international donors.

If you are interested in supporting the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative, through technical assistance or financial support, please let us know by contacting nadia@proforest.net 

The publication, in both English and French, is also available to download HERE or you can view it online at bit.ly/ASCI_Book.