Nestle's own scheme, as they self-regulate for their own benefit it has to be taken with a pinch of salt - but the aims are to be lauded on the few products where this label appears.

The idea is to make cocoa farming more profitable for farmers by giving them better-yielding cocoa trees and training them to use land sustainably. They also work to eliminate child labour, empower women and improve transparency in the supply chain. The main countries to benefit are Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana (though some new countries came on board in 2023 and are on the rise).

The environmental aspects are particularly loose though, focus is really on 'sustainable yields for famers'. Nestle did launch a deforestation plan in 2021 and they are helping map rainforests to reduce impact of vulnerable areas.

There are official reports on the Cocoa Plan website so there is some transparency, but it's all a bit hand wavy, 'mapping forests', 'training' and 'support' for the farmers and 'reaching local people', but what they put into action is vague. For example, they big-up their 'distribution of 1.1 million trees to local people', but what the people did with those trees isn't shown. Nestle are now cutting their Coca Plan coca with Rain Forest Alliance certified material which muddies the waters even further.

Better than nothing, but no where near the standards of Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance.

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