C\^ote d'Ivoire and Ghana, the world's largest producers of cocoa, account for two thirds of the global cocoa production. In both countries, cocoa is the primary perennial crop, providing income to almost two million farmers. Yet precise maps of cocoa planted area are missing, hindering accurate quantification of expansion in protected areas, production and yields, and limiting information available for improved sustainability governance. Here, we combine cocoa plantation data with publicly available satellite imagery in a deep learning framework and create high-resolution maps of cocoa plantations for both countries, validated in situ. Our results suggest that cocoa cultivation is an underlying driver of over 37% and 13% of forest loss in protected areas in C\^ote d'Ivoire and Ghana, respectively, and that official reports substantially underestimate the planted area, up to 40% in Ghana. These maps serve as a crucial building block to advance understanding of conservation and economic development in cocoa producing regions.
翻译:科特迪瓦和加纳是世界上最大的可可生产国,占全球可可产量的三分之二。在这两个国家,可可是主要的常年作物,为近200万农民提供了收入。但可可种植面积的精确地图却缺失,妨碍了保护区、产量和产量的准确量化,限制了改善可持续性治理的现有信息。在这里,我们将可可种植数据与公开可得的卫星图像结合起来,在深厚的学习框架内为两国制作可可种植的高分辨率地图,并在现场验证。我们的结果表明,可可种植是科特迪瓦和加纳保护区森林损失的37%以上和13%的基本驱动力,官方报告严重低估了种植面积,加纳的种植面积高达40%。这些地图是推动了解可可生产区养护和经济发展的关键基石。