Takeaways on AP's investigation into cocoa coming from a protected Nigerian rainforest

As the world’s demand for chocolate grows, farmers in Nigeria are moving into protected areas of a forest reserve that's home to endangered species like African forest elephants

OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria -- Habitat for a dwindling population of critically endangered African forest elephants is under threat, a casualty of the world’s appetite for chocolate.

Deforestation driven by planting cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is whittling down 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 conservation areas where cocoa farming is banned, conservation officials say.

The Associated Press spoke to 20 farmers, two brokers and five licensed buying agents who are growing and selling cocoa from the reserve to figure out where cocoa beans used in holiday sweets are heading.

Here are takeaways from AP’s investigation:

The AP visited plantations and warehouses of farmers and licensed buying agents who acknowledge that they operate illegally in the reserve’s conservation area. AP also spoke with brokers working in the forest and visited facilities belonging to major cocoa trading companies just outside the reserve.