Cocoa Boom or Forest Doom: As prices rise, farmers encroach on Nigeria’s conservation areas

Six years after graduating from the university in his Cross River home state, John Etta abandoned his search for a white-collar job. Following his uncle’s advice, he ventured into agribusiness in 2021, focusing on cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, with bush mangoes, plantain, yam, and cocoyam on the side.

His uncle, a university teacher, had introduced him to the wealth of opportunities in cocoa farming, particularly in their community of Bendeghe-Afi, 240 kilometres from…