The growing global importance of agroecology highlights the pivotal role public and private sectors play in providing incentives and investments to catalyze behavioural changes and transform food systems. However, limited research exists on incentives for scaling agroecological practices in cacao value chains.

This study employed a systematic review approach, focusing on Peruvian cacao sector, to explore incentives promoting agroecological practices and their sustainability outcomes. In total, a final selection of 22 papers, which specifically address Peru’s cacao value chain and agroecology were included in the review.

Findings reveal that within Peru’s cacao value chains, non-market incentives constitute the majority (36%), followed by regulatory measures (25%), market-based incentives (22%), and cross-compliance incentives (17%). Main providers of incentives include certification bodies, community-based organizations, and international funding organizations.

Effective incentives include sustainability standards, market support subsidies, in-kind rewards, and agroecological schemes that support the adoption of practices such as intercropping, nature conservation for carbon sequestration, and the use of green and animal manure.

Cocoa marketing cooperatives, agroecological public policies, and investments in social capital have played crucial roles in facilitating private sector engagement, ultimately leading to increased resilience and sustainability.

These incentives have significantly improved sustainability outcomes: economic (39%), environmental (33%), and social (28%), as illustrated in figure 1.

Figure 1: Recorded links between incentives, incentive type, and outcomes

Based on a subset of 12 papers, the authors find that incentives specifically related to the transition or adoption of the agroecological practices detailed in figure 2 below contributed to 43%, 33%, and 24% of measurable economic, environmental, and social outcomes, respectively.

Figure 2: Incentives and agroecological practices adoption linkages in Peru’s cacao sector.

However, limited use of cross-compliance incentives, such as voluntary carbon markets and regional agroecological schemes, and modest emphasis on social outcomes highlight the need for policy instruments targeting the adoption of agroecological practices within cacao sector.

This review emphasises the importance of creating private-sector incentive models coupled with the creation of an enabling environment via the public sector. This can facilitate the transition from conventional practices to agroecological food systems in Peru’s cacao sector.