Word: cacao
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...Wild elephants, not loggers, are the rangers' main problem right now. Crops planted by returning farmers are proving irresistible to two local herds. At a farm nearby, elephants have trampled banana and cacao trees, toppled betel-nut palms and left jumbo-size footprints in the fishponds. There, at the forest edge, humans and animals must coexist. Each morning, the calls of gibbons compete with the calls to prayer from nearby village mosques...
Gathered in a remote area called Pulau Koto, the ex-residents of Tandikat huddled in a tent and had no idea that the tragedy that befell them extended far beyond their once-placid rice paddies and cacao fields. Learning that hundreds had died in the city of Padang, a two-hour drive away, Amin hugged his daughter in his arms. "Compared to many people, I am lucky," he says. "At least I have someone left." (Read a story about the earthquake in Padang...
...Other companies are ratcheting up their responsibility commitments. Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, says it plans to increase investment this year in energy efficiency that will help the environment and cut costs. Mars and Cadbury have unveiled plans to increase the amount of cacao they harvest from sustainable sources because it is good for the environment and will also relieve potential shortages in the future. The high-end stroller company Bugaboo just announced it is joining the multibrand (RED) campaign - think Gap, Apple, Bono - and will start contributing 1% of its total revenues to the Global Fund that helps...
...money is not important, he said. Critics, however, argue that the Central Bank's exclusive authority doesn't give it creative license to invent new styles of currency that stray from the technical specifications laid out in the Monetary Law. "The government couldn't just start circulating cacao beans and say it's currency like the indigenous did," says economist Nestor Avendano. "They have to respect...
Another problem is land invasions by local farmers who chop down cacao to plant faster-yielding banana trees. "They destroy the forest forever," Rosenberg complains, pointing to a hole in one of his plantation's barbed-wire fences. Jorge Redmond, president of Chocolates El Rey, a Venezuelan company that has been processing premium cacao since 1929, says El Rey saw almost 865 acres (350 hectares) decimated recently when 40 families invaded. "A 10-year effort was destroyed in days," he says. "We were able to produce one batch of San Joaquin Private Reserve chocolate before this happened, but we will...