“Smithsonian Bird Friendly™ certified cocoa is the only certification that guarantees healthy habitat for birds and other wildlife with each delicious bite. Bird Friendly™ flies above the rest by certifying cocoa farms that conserve birds and other wildlife by protecting tropical forests and native trees. The result is delicious cocoa guaranteed to be wildlife-friendly, sustainable, and organic. The program inspects and certifies the production of cocoa produced from plantations with specific diversity of shade trees, using traditionally and ecologically sound methods of cultivation, promoting the growth of organic, shade-grown, and forest-friendly cocoa. “ - Smithsonian Center

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center Bird Friendly™ Certification for Cocoa has officially launched this year following the success of their Bird Friendly Coffee certification program, and years of behind the scenes work to establish the highest standards and framework for producers and makers.

Cocoa is grown under canopy cover and shade trees. Smithsonian scientist research has found that cocoa farms with 30-40% canopy cover and diverse shade trees can support as many bird species as undisturbed forest. These findings have laid the groundwork for the Bird Friendly certification standard. Bird Friendly Certification follows a strict environmental criteria that assesses for organic certification, canopy cover and tree height.

Cocoa grows best in an “agroforestry” approach, which nurtures and regrows a natural forest environment with cocoa interspersed amongst many species of trees and plants. Agroforestry methods yield the highest quality cacao because cacao can flourish in this environment that is rich in soil minerals, reduces stress on the trees, regulates the climate, and balances the ecosystem. The agroforestry environment provides habitat for birds and other wildlife, habitat of which is typically disturbed, if not destroyed, by unsustainable cocoa production, characterized by conventional agricultural methods, rainforest clearing and monocropping.

Zorzal Cacao is a 1,019 acre bird sanctuary and organic cacao demonstration farm in the northern mountain range of the Dominican Republic. Zorzal Cacao aims to tackle big obstacles like climate change mitigation, deforestation, wildlife conservation, habitat restoration, and sustainable development through the preservation and community-based bird monitoring of one tiny songbird with a chipper voice, the Bicknell’s Thrush, zorzal de Bicknell in Spanish.

Zorzal Cacao, In partnership with the Vermont Center for EcoStudies, established a monitoring program in their 700 acre rainforest reserve area, where, for over a decade, they have monitored Bicknell’s Thrush through a community-based monitoring program. This program provides educational opportunities and additional income for community stakeholders, and over the years, provided reassuring evidence that their conservation and habitat creation efforts are having positive results.

The Bicknell’s Thrush is one of eastern North America’s rarest songbirds. It migrates between the northeast like places like The Catskills, Massachusetts, Vermont to Nova Scotia, and winters down in The Caribbean in areas including the Dominican Republic as well as Cuba. Historically, this bird was quite common in the northeast, yet over the last several decades, this vulnerable species has become more and more threatened. The plight of the vulnerable Bicknell’s Thrush coincides with warming climates and environmental destruction. As a mountaintop dweller – deforestation caused by developments such as ski resorts in the Northeast, and illegal deforestation in the DR, causes fragmentation and loss of habitat for the Thrush. In addition, another threat to the Thrush has to do with atmosphere pollution – where high levels of toxic mercury are recorded in all birds that are monitored at both ends of its migration locations.