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The Amazon, Cradle of Cacao

Updated: Nov 7, 2025

Article written to celebrate the International Day for the Protection of the Amazon, September 5th, 2025.


Mother Forest and sacred River — the Amazon is one of the most powerful living treasures of our planet.Majestic and mysterious, it embodies the beating heart of the Earth, sheltering unmatched biodiversity.


It is here, within this vast green expanse, that the story of cacao begins — a sacred plant, messenger of primordial creation and of the ancestral peoples.



The river and the forest

The Amazon is both river and forest


With more than 6,400 km, the Amazon River carries more water than any other river in the world, linking the glaciers of the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. Its forest stretches over more than 6.7 million km², spanning nine countries (Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana) and primarily covering five of them (the first five listed). It produces nearly 20% of the planet’s freshwater and plays a vital role in regulating the global climate.


This living system shelters extraordinary biodiversity: one in ten known species lives here. From pink dolphins to giant otters, from majestic ceiba trees to millions of plants — including very many master and medicinal plants — the Amazon is a sanctuary of life.


👉 Embark on an extraordinary journey following the Amazon River through the stories of the forest with National Geographic: Into the Amazon


Pink dolphin - according to El País, this threatened species could disappear by 2030
Pink dolphin - according to El País, this threatened species could disappear by 2030

Memory and culture

The Amazon is not only nature — it is also memory and culture


Rock paintings more than 12,000 years old bear witness to ancestral human presence, while today more than 400 Indigenous nations live in deep relationship with this land. Their songs, rituals, and knowledge are threads of wisdom that connect us to the sacredness of life.




Cacao: a sacred gift born of the Amazon

It is here, in the upper Amazon basin, that the story of cacao begins.


Recent research published in Nature (Montenegro et al., 2024) confirms that Theobroma cacao L. — literally “the food of the gods” — was domesticated over 5,000 years ago, between present-day Ecuador (Upano Valley, Zamora-Chinchipe region) and northern Peru (Napo and Marañón valleys).


Cacao DNA traces were found on about 30% of more than 350 ancient ceramics, testifying here, in the heart of this Andean Amazon — a region of confluence between the Andes and the great rainforest — to its ritual use and early circulation, long before the Maya and Aztecs made it a sacred food.


But this domestication is only a chapter in a far greater and timeless story — that of cacao itself, whose seeds traveled through winds, animals, and the vast river network of the Amazon, across nature’s living web, spreading south and north across the continent — throughout the equatorial belt of the Earth, cradle of its natural expansion.




Threats and responsibilities

And yet today, the Amazon is gravely threatened, and we all know it


  • Each year, thousands of hectares disappear due to deforestation, often linked to cattle ranching or soy cultivation.

  • Mines and exploitations — illegal or authorized — wound the forest and poison the rivers.

  • Fires, often deliberately set, ravage entire regions.

  • Climate change amplifies these pressures, pushing the forest toward a dangerous tipping point.


The consequences are global. Scientists warn that if deforestation continues, the Amazon could shift into savanna, releasing enormous amounts of carbon and disrupting the world’s climate.


🔥 A red alert for forests

In 2024, tropical forests experienced record destruction: more than 6.7 million hectares lost, the equivalent of 18 football fields per minute, or the size of Panama.


For the first time, fires, fueled by climate change, surpassed agriculture as the main cause.


Historically, pressure on forests has come from the exploitation of four products, nicknamed the “big four”: palm oil, soy, beef, and timber. But new pressures are emerging, notably linked to avocados in Mexico, coffee… and cacao.


These figures concern the tropical forests of the entire world — Amazon, Congo Basin, Southeast Asia — reminding us that deforestation is a global phenomenon.A “global red alert,” scientists remind us, calling us to protect these primary forests — lungs of the Earth and sanctuaries of life (Le Courrier, May 22, 2025).


A deforestation in a region of the Amazon, Acre (Brazil), in 2022.
A deforestation in a region of the Amazon, Acre (Brazil), in 2022.

Hope and action

Let us remain concerned but positive, because where there is hope, there is life


  • September 5th marks the International Day for the Protection of the Amazon — a symbolic moment to renew our commitment to the forest and its peoples, and to promote Indigenous governance and truly sustainable economies, as emphasized by the Manaus Action Plan, which aims to reduce deforestation by 80%.

    Meanwhile, the COP (United Nations Climate Conference) is an annual global event; in 2025, COP30 will take place in Brazil, in Belém, at the heart of the Amazon — a powerful symbol, and we sincerely hope that those in power will act with intelligence and clarity of spirit, and truly grasp the vital issues facing humanity today.


  • Cacao, when cultivated in agroforestry systems, like those we promote with our One Love Cacao project, can become a true ally of the forest. This practice — still alive in Latin America — allows cacao to be produced without cutting down the forest, by integrating it into diverse ecosystems. In contrast, in some regions of West Africa, which today concentrate most of the world’s cacao production, the dominant trend remains deforestation to install monocultures.


  • Finally, global campaigns remind us that our choices — what we eat, what we consume — are directly linked to the future of the Amazon.



Why we celebrate

At One Love Cacao, our love for cacao is inseparable from our love for the Earth


We thus celebrate the International Day for the Protection of the Amazon and remind that it is also the cradle of the plant we walk with — Cacao.


To honor the Amazon is to honor Mother Earth, Nature, and all its living ecosystems, as well as all beings of all realms of life on this Planet — and much more, visible and invisible. And it is to honor the earthly origins of cacao, older than the mountains (see our upcoming blog article on this), older than civilizations, carrying in its seeds the memory of primordial forests.


ONE Love. ONE Love Cacao.


Final curiosity: The greatest lung of our planet is not the Amazon… but the Ocean! 🌊💨🐠



***

With gratitude and commitment.


Sakara

Association One Love Creation, One Love Cacao Project



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