The next Curry Club lecture will take place on Wednesday 14th October 2026. The lecturer will be Ruth Malleson who will speak on the subject “Deforestation free and sustainable cocoa production: is there such a thing?”
Abstract
Despite Ghana being the second largest cocoa producer in the world, most Ghanaian smallholder cocoa producers live below the poverty line and their livelihoods are increasingly vulnerable, due to climate change. Meanwhile, deforestation, driven mainly by the expansion of cocoa production, continues apace.
Measures designed to address deforestation in agricultural commodity supply chains, including cocoa, such as the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation and the planned UK deforestation regulations (due to be delivered in 2027) are being introduced. They will require buyers to ensure full traceability of deforestation free products to plot level.
Reflecting on her own experiences of working in this field, this talk discusses some of the shortcomings of projects and programmes aimed at making cocoa farmers’ livelihoods more resilient and making cocoa supply chains more deforestation free, sustainable and traceable. It goes on to suggest some approaches to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of such interventions. It will do this by discussing a small number of illustrative cases from Ghana and elsewhere in the region.
Our Speaker – Ruth Malleson
After completing a degree in Agriculture and Forest Sciences, Ruth started work in Southwest Province, Cameroon in the late 1980s on one of the first ‘integrated conservation and development projects’ in West Africa. The Korup Project aimed to conserve the newly gazetted Korup National Park and, at the same time, support smallholder farmers living in and around the park to sustainably develop their livelihoods. She subsequently carried out her doctoral research in anthropology in the same area, with support of an UK Economic and Social Research Council grant entitled ‘the Cultural Context of Rainforest Conservation’. Ruth then carried out research on social and economic importance of non-timber forest products for smallholder farmers in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria. This was an initiative of University College London and the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, funded by UK government’s the Forest Research Programme. More recently she has worked on independently, monitoring and evaluating forest conservation, rural livelihood and climate change adaptation and mitigation projects; for a range of clients, including the European Union and small and large NGOs, such as Global Witness and Tropenbos. She’s also worked for six years on Forests 2020, a UK Space Agency funded project which aimed to improve governance, restoration and monitoring of tropical forests in West Africa, Central and South America and Indonesia by using geospatial data. Ruth continues to work as an independent anthropologist and agroforester.
Date
Wednesday 14th October 2026
Venue
The Cinnamon Bazaar
Maiden Lane
Covent Garden
London WC2E 7JS
Timetable
11:00 – Registration and coffee
11:30 – TAAI Update
11:40 – Talk begins
13:15 – Curry Lunch
Cost
£30 per head, which includes TAAI use of the venue. AV equipment, morning coffee, and a curry lunch.
Those who do not take lunch are asked to contribute £5 towards the meeting costs.
Payment
At the venue on the day by credit card only please. The Cinnamon Bazaar does not take cash.
Registration
If you wish to attend, please contact David Radcliffe at uklse@taa-international.org
If you have to cancel please let us know by telephone, text or email to David Radcliffe even early in the morning before the event. Tel 07887 751848 Email uklse@taa-international.org
