OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria (AP) - The habitat of a dwindling population of critically endangered African forest elephants is under threat, a victim of the world's chocolate hunger.
Deforestation caused by planting cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is reducing the Omo Forest Reserve, a protected rainforest in southwestern Nigeria that helps combat climate change and is one of Africa's oldest and largest UNESCO biosphere reserves. Farmers are expanding into protected areas where cocoa growing is banned, conservation officials say.
The Associated Press spoke to 20 farmers, two brokers and five licensed purchasing agents who grow and sell cacao from ...
