The best rainforest-saving chocolate bar none.

Cool Earth’s Asháninka partners in Peru have a surprising weapon in the fight against deforestation: chocolate.

In Peru’s Ene Valley, a remote part of the Amazon rainforest, the world’s finest variety of cacao grows underneath the shade of the canopy. Making up a fraction of the world’s chocolate production, Criollo is the most valued cocoa bean, and demands a high price from chocolatiers.

The Ene valley is one of the world’s most at-risk areas, threatened by the illegal trades of logging and coca, which together could destroy the rainforest. Instead, cultivating and selling cacao has doubled local income for Cool Earth’s Asháninka partners, earning them far more than logging could ever pay, and helping to keep the forest safe.

Cultivating this crop also ensures the health of the forest, as it needs large established trees shading it to flourish.

Cool Earth’s supporters are helping the Asháninka build sustainable livelihoods from these most magical of beans.

The beans have been shipped to Cornwall, to be tempered, aged and crafted into highly desirable bars of chocolate by Chocolarder: one of the best bean to bar chocolatiers in the uk.


Chocolate contains beneficial minerals like magnesium, potassium, zinc and selenium, as well as phenylethylamine, which encourages your brain to release feel-good endorphins. So there are plenty of good reasons for eating it, quite apart from the fact that it’s delicious.

And most importantly, it’s helping to protect the rainforest.