Ivory Coast law could see chocolate industry ‘wipe out’ protected forests

Critics condemn move placing thousands of square miles of rainforest under control of international companies

The Ivory Coast's dwindling rainforests could be "wiped out" under a new law that will see legal protections removed from thousands of square miles of classified forest and unprecedented power handed to industrial chocolate manufacturers.

Civil society groups, environmental campaigners and workers' cooperatives have warned that the new forestry code, ratified by the National Assembly and currently being implemented, will encourage unsustainable cocoa production and legalise large-scale deforestation in already ravaged areas.