Summary
Cameroon, the world’s fifth-largest cocoa producer, faces the multifaceted challenge of sustaining rural livelihoods while preventing deforestation and promoting climate resilience. Cocoa production supports approximately 600,000 smallholder producers, yet expansion into forested areas contributes to biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental degradation. Cameroon’s cocoa sector faces gaps in evidence, policy alignment, and governance, with limited documentation on stakeholder priorities, sustainable practices, and innovation diffusion, hindering full implementation of zero-deforestation strategies. This study employed a qualitative approach combining a comprehensive literature review with 24 key informant interviews across the cocoa value chain, including producers, cooperatives, input suppliers, buyers/ exporters, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and researchers. Findings reveal that stakeholders share overarching aspirations for zero-deforestation, climate mitigation, and resilience, though priorities vary by group and region. Producers focus on stabilizing production through agroforestry, intercropping, and integrated pest management. Cooperatives emphasize economic diversification and high-yield cocoa varieties Buyers/ exporters prioritize regulatory compliance. Lastly, nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and government actors promote long-term forest protection and social inclusion, particularly for women and youth. Key practices adopted include agroforestry, mixed cropping, careful pruning, soil and water conservation, and climate-smart post-harvest techniques. Bundled innovations, such as combining agroforestry with digital traceability or assisted natural regeneration, are seen as critical for maximizing adoption and co-benefits. The enabling environment comprises policies (e.g., Revised Forest Law 2024, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus, National Action Plan for Sustainable Cocoa, and the European Union Regulation on Deforestationfree Products), institutions (e.g., cooperatives and the Sustainable Cocoa Platform), and incentives (market premiums, training, certification, and payments for ecosystem services). Despite these mechanisms, financial constraints, insecure land tenure, weak enforcement, and institutional fragmentation remain major barriers. Scaling sustainable cocoa production will require coordinated investments in technical assistance, tenure security, market incentives, traceability, infrastructure, and multistakeholder governance to build a resilient, deforestationfree, and competitive cocoa sector in Cameroon.