Something strange is happening in Liberia

Liberia is losing its rainforest at an alarming rate. Satellite data reveals rapid deforestation across one of West Africa’s last remaining intact rainforests, driven largely by illegal cocoa plantations supplying the global demand for chocolate. To find out more, we travel deep into Liberia’s forests to speak with migrant cocoa workers, forest rangers, and community landowners. From a protected chimpanzee habitat to the European Parliament, the story traces the historical migration that helped make Côte d’Ivoire the world’s largest cocoa producer—and the environmental cost that followed. Today, southeastern Liberia could be on the way to repeating that history. Credits Topics