Large, undifferentiated plantations of a single crop left Costa Rica's cacao trees vulnerable, says Allen Young, which is why Costa Rica's cacao industry was destroyed by Monilia pod rot in the 1980s. "Monoculture invites problems, and makes you a sitting target for disease and pestilence. But if you grow cacao as an integrated part of a forest ecosystem, what you're doing is softening the negative impact of these problems, because there are many more hosts around for those things to attack."

Scientists at La Tirimbina are already working on a sustainable forestry experiment, and Young wants to include cacao in the plan. "Rather than clear-cutting, researchers have been cutting down only selected trees, retaining the integrity of the forest, and carefully measuring the impact of this limited harvest," Young says. The lessons of ecology and tradition suggest that cacao trees can be grown successfully in small stands in the forest understory where hardwoods have been removed.

If Young's latest project goes as planned, a year from now as many as 1,000 new chocolate trees will be growing by the Sarapiqui River. He hopes these plants will thrive and show small farmers in this corner of Costa Rica how they might once again make their living growing the magical stuff of brownies and birthday cakes. If chocolate makes a comeback here, it could put many people back to work. Young predicts that it will be safer and more economical, because insecticides and fungicides can be reduced when cacao trees are able to take advantage of protections provided by their natural habitat.

Young wants the rest of the world's cacao industry to take note, too. Wouldn't it be delicious if chocolate -- the perfect crop for small farmers, intensely pleasurable and gently psychoactive -- could help save the world's rainforests?