Version 1
: Received: 6 August 2024 / Approved: 6 August 2024 / Online: 7 August 2024 (00:45:10 CEST)
How to cite:
Vinci, G.; Ruggeri, M.; Gobbi, L.; Savastano, M. Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from West Africa. Preprints2024, 2024080467. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0467.v1
Vinci, G.; Ruggeri, M.; Gobbi, L.; Savastano, M. Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from West Africa. Preprints 2024, 2024080467. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0467.v1
Vinci, G.; Ruggeri, M.; Gobbi, L.; Savastano, M. Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from West Africa. Preprints2024, 2024080467. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0467.v1
APA Style
Vinci, G., Ruggeri, M., Gobbi, L., & Savastano, M. (2024). Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from West Africa. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0467.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Vinci, G., Laura Gobbi and Marco Savastano. 2024 "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from West Africa" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0467.v1
Abstract
Cocoa is a natural resource that plays a very important role globally, being one of the most produced and traded commodities. Being a labor-intensive product and considering that its cultivation involves about 50 million people globally, it seems significant to explore its social sustainability. In light of this, this research aimed to map social risks within the cocoa supply chain from a life cycle perspective. Therefore, according to a Reference Scale Approach, or Type I, the Social Life Cycle Assessment was used, considering the two most influential Countries in its production, i.e. Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. The results showed that there could be a very high risk that more than half of the cocoa globally is produced through child labour and with wages too low to guarantee workers a decent living, returning incomes of $30-38/month. Forced labour is much less frequent than child labour, while cocoa from Ghana may induce a high risk of improper work, considering the 30.2 hours per week worked by farmers. This is mainly due to the low association power of 10-16%, which reveals a high risk that workers may not organize themselves into trade unions. Finally, at 23-25%, there is also a very high risk of discrimination due to the high presence of migrant labour. The S-LCA results, therefore, showed that the cocoa industry is still characterized by socially unsustainable sourcing.
Keywords
Social Life Cycle Assessment; Cocoa; Ivory Coast; Ghana; PSILCA
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
