Conservation of biodiversity and natural ecosystems

Our Lindt & Sprüngli Deforestation Policy, introduced in 2023, covers our key deforestation-linked commodities soy, palm oil, pulp- and paper-based packaging and cocoa (see exact scope for each material in our Deforestation Policy). It defines our ambition to eliminate deforestation, and applies to our global operations, including our subsidiaries.

We aim to deliver on our commitments for the in-scope materials set out in the Lindt & Sprüngli Deforestation Policy through the implementation of a deforestation due diligence approach that includes:

• Gathering supply chain transparency and traceability information
• Assessing deforestation risks in sourcing origins
• Taking actions to mitigate the risk of deforestation linked to our supply chains, such as sourcing certified volumes, engaging our suppliers and investing in production landscape initiatives
• Monitoring to detect cases of non-compliance in our supply chains and providing access to our grievance mechanism, the Lindt & Sprüngli Speak Up Line
• Engaging our suppliers in supporting effective remediation where and when cases of non-compliance with our standards have occurred in our supply chain
• Regularly measuring and reporting progress in meeting our commitments

Lindt & Sprüngli recognizes that eliminating deforestation in commodity supply chains also requires ongoing collaboration within the sector, as well as landscape initiatives, in order to address systemic issues and develop common solutions.

In addition to working towards our own voluntary commitments, a focus in 2024 will also be to initiate measures in response to the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR).

Actions in the cocoa supply chain

Conserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems is one of the Farming Program’s main objectives. As part of our No-Deforestation Policy, all direct suppliers of cocoa must ensure that volumes supplied to Lindt & Sprüngli are either sourced through the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program, or certified under a certification standard approved by Lindt & Sprüngli (e.g., Rainforest Alliance) by the end of 2025.

To address deforestation in our Farming Program, we have defined three core intervention areas in our Cocoa No-Deforestation & Agroforestry Action Plan. These include activities to address deforestation in the supply chain, promote agroforestry systems for cocoa, and support community forest conservation and restoration.

This reporting year is the fifth year of implementing the Lindt & Sprüngli Cocoa No-Deforestation & Agroforestry Action Plan. By the end of 2023, 72.3% of our overall cocoa volume was sourced through the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program or other sustainability programs, which include the implementation of activities outlined in the Action Plan.

The primary objectives of our Action Plan for cocoa include:

• No cocoa sourcing from protected areas as per local laws
• No expansion of land for cocoa cultivation into areas defined by the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach or equivalent
• Agroforestry systems for cocoa production
• Supporting community forest protection and restoration

Monitoring and external verification

The Action Plan applies to all suppliers implementing the Farming Program and it remains an integral part of the Program activities, including monitoring, evaluation and external verification. For monitoring and evaluation, the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program has set KPIs with required reporting from suppliers on a quarterly and annual basis. This data is aggregated and used to track performance. For more information on our Farming Program principles and activities, see the Rural development chapter. For external verification, the approach depends on the product. For cocoa beans, the Earthworm Foundation conducts an annual assessment to verify compliance with the Action Plan. For the volumes of cocoa butter and other cocoa products sourced through third-party sustainability programs, we rely on certification bodies and standards such as the Rainforest Alliance to provide external verification assurance against their own criteria. For more information, see sections on Monitoring and external verification in the Rural development chapter and Satellite monitoring.

Engaging in collective action

We recognize the importance of collective action to address deforestation. Therefore, we are an active member and signatory of the Cocoa & Forest Initiative (CFI), the first and largest public-private partnership in the cocoa sector. As such we are aligned with the goals of the initiative to stop the conversion of any forest land for cocoa production, to safeguard and restore forest land, and to make the cocoa production and farmers’ livelihoods sustainable. CFI targets are focused on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, where Lindt & Sprüngli sources the main share of its cocoa.

Addressing deforestation 

Farm mapping, farmer registration process and traceability

Farm mapping, farmer registration and establishing traceability from farm to first point of purchasing are the initial steps when suppliers start the implementation of our Farming Program. As part of the Program, all farmers are registered, farm GPS point coordinates are taken and baseline data about the farm and household is collected. Additionally, suppliers put in place externally verified or certified processes and systems to establish traceability from farm to first point of purchase. For more information, see Establishing traceable and transparent supply chains in the Rural development chapter.

When registering a new farmer, we require at least GPS points of all farm plots under four hectares, as well as GPS polygons of the same plots six months after registration. For farm plots over four hectares, we require GPS polygons before the first cocoa delivery. Once farms are mapped, their boundaries are updated through on-site visits by Program staff. Participating farmers are made aware of local laws and issues related to deforestation, including mandatory reporting to their buyer for additional checks if they wish to expand their farms. 

As of 2023, around 131,000 registered Farming Program farmers (99.7%) had their farms either GPS- or polygon-mapped (polygons are digital outlines of farm boundaries) and 84.5% of farms were polygon mapped.

Satellite monitoring 

Since 2020, we have carried out land-use change assessments using primary data (polygons and GPS points) from the farmers in the Farming Program. The facilitated analysis of tree-cover loss has enabled us to calculate our carbon footprint from land-use change over the past 20 years. In 2023, we started piloting the use of a high-resolution satellite monitoring system provided by Satelligence to more accurately monitor and detect deforestation within or around our mapped Program supply chain. This tool provides deforestation detection data, deforestation risk assessments, and carbon emission quantification as a result of land-use change. 

We used Satelligence to check for supplier and farmer compliance with our no-deforestation guidance and upcoming regulatory requirements. Using Satelligence data, the assessment of polygons of farmers registered in our Program has shown that 99.9% of the 160,000 polygons were proven not to be located in protected areas as per local laws. Potentially non-compliant farms, including those that are within a minimum threshold of a protected area boundary or with cases of deforestation, were flagged for suppliers to further verify on the ground.

While progress at scale has been made with respect to traceability and farm mapping, Program growth and farmer fluctuation make it challenging to maintain the pace of farm mapping efforts and upgrading from GPS points to polygons. We still aim to have 100% of farms GPS- or polygon-mapped.

To keep methods for deforestation monitoring, assessments of land-use change and carbon emission quantification consistent, we are currently piloting the integration of this data into our Scope 3 carbon emission monitoring. For more information on our science-based targets, see the Climate chapter.

Holistic farm development plans

Farming Program training addresses topics that complement the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, including ecological principles, the protection of water sources, and organic farming practices. Select farmers receive support in complying with Farming Program requirements and are provided with a Farm Development Plan (FDP) which may then be used during coaching sessions to provide guidance on how to best manage their land. We work with our suppliers to include a holistic view of the FDPs and consider climate and biodiversity aspects alongside the agronomic aspects of farming.

Supporting resilience of farming households to reduce deforestation risk

Deforestation caused by land-use change for agricultural production is a complex, systemic issue, often with farmer poverty as one of its root causes. With our Farming Program we aim to increase the overall resilience of farming households by facilitating higher productivity, supporting diversification of household incomes, and improving community infrastructure. For more information on our Farming Program principles and activities, see the Rural development chapter.

Promoting agroforestry systems for cocoa production

We are committed to promoting sustainable farming systems and Climate-smart agriculture. For cocoa production this involves supporting farmers in transitioning to agroforestry systems by incorporating different species of shade trees, shrubs and other complementary food crops into the farms. The objectives are to diversify farmers’ incomes, improve soils and prevent water loss, create more climate-resilient cocoa farms, reduce agriculture-related carbon emissions and contribute to conservation of biodiversity. 

The Farming Program supports farmers through training and individual coaching, and provides inputs including seedlings to facilitate agroforestry adoption and improved cocoa production. In 2023, suppliers continued to distribute tree seedlings, with an emphasis on locally adapted and proven agroforestry models. We worked with suppliers to improve monitoring measures with the aim of increasing tree seedling survival rates. To date, 4,480,000 multi-purpose shade trees have been distributed across all Farming Program origins, 563,000 of these in 2023.

With the exception of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire as a result of national regulations, the agroforestry support was combined with farm rehabilitation and renovation activities in areas where farmers have old or diseased cocoa trees. In 2023, a total of 397,000 potentially high-yielding and heat- and disease-resistant cocoa seedlings were supplied. This brought the overall number of cocoa seedlings distributed since the start of the Farming Program in 2008 to 7,670,000.

As part of our Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) we are developing action plans with the goal of reducing carbon emissions in our cocoa value chain. We plan to review our current agroforestry approach and assess incentives for farmers to adopt more advanced agroforestry models and invest in the maintenance of newly planted shade trees.

Case study: Dynamic Agroforestry

Dynamic Agroforestry (DAF) is an approach that differentiates itself from monoculture farming, reliant on external elements such as fertilizers and pesticides, by incorporating a mix of trees, shrubs and crops. Compared to other forms of agroforestry, it integrates a higher density of species with multiple canopies, mimicking the natural process of forest regrowth. The cocoa tree remains the primary focus, complemented by other plants that are chosen to match the local climate, socio-economic context, and farmer needs. 

Lindt & Sprüngli started piloting DAF in Ecuador in 2021 with the support of technical experts from Ecotop. A successful implementation of demonstration plots and adoption by farmers in Ecuador led to replication in Ghana in 2022. By the end of 2023, there were more than 60 DAF demonstration plots in Ecuador with two suppliers, as well as a number in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar. These demonstration plots are now being used for agronomist trainers and lead farmers to learn about best practices to be scaled across the Program.

Supporting community forest protection and reforestation

Addressing the underlying drivers of deforestation to conserve forests in any region will not be achieved by focusing solely on cocoa farmers within our own supply chain. We therefore engage in multi-stakeholder initiatives such as CFI that aim to protect forests and build sustainable landscapes.

Further, we support collective action at landscape level in two countries: Ghana and Madagascar1. In 2023, in Ghana, we supported the creation and capacity development of landscape governance bodies in two landscapes (Kakum and Juabeso-Bia). We also supported building capacity and establishing sustainable income streams for natural resource management groups within the landscape. In Madagascar, we provide in-kind funding to a multi-stakeholder project – co-funded by SECO and led by Helvetas – for a new phase of a landscape project in the Sambirano valley which we already co-funded in 2020. The new phase focuses on strengthening local management systems, clarifying and securing land tenure, improving training modules for climate-smart agriculture and agroforestry systems, and diversifying cocoa farmers’ income sources.