Ivory Coast on Friday hailed a major reduction in the loss of forest cover as a "real success" after the massive spread of cocoa plantations over the last 50 years.
The world's largest cocoa supplier, accounting for more than 40 percent of global output, Ivory Coast boasted 16 million hectares under forest in the 1960s.
Today forests cover only two million hectares in the West African nation, according to government statistics.
The ministry of water and forests said a new policy adopted in 2018 to conserve and extend forests played a large part in the "major" drop in deforestation.
Satellite pictures show the losses between 2019 and 2021 at around 26,000 hectares a year, the ministry said in a statement.
"The average annual rate of loss between 1990 and 2015 was about 300,000 hectares of forest," the ministry noted.
The improvements have also been helped by the Cocoa and Forests Initiative launched in 2017 by Ivory Coast and neighbouring Ghana with leading cocoa and chocolate producers to halt deforestation within the industry supply chain.
Water and forests minister Alain Richard has plans to double current tree cover to six million hectares — or about 20 percent of the country — by 2030.
Ivory Coast set up a "green army" of 650 soldiers last year to help fight deforestation.
