The cocoa sector is facing new demands, mainly from European markets, to demonstrate the legality of its production, its sustainability and the neutrality of its impact on tropical forest. In Cameroon, despite the importance of this sector for the national economy, the deregulation of the sector over the last 25 years has not allowed the state to face these three challenges. There is currently no precise definition of what legal cocoa is. A national standard for sustainable cocoa is being adopted, but it is not very binding. And the desire to reduce the footprint of cocoa production on the forest and to produce cocoa without deforestation is a more recent concern, which is not yet reflected in public policy. In such a context, the certification of cocoa according to private standards can be a successful approach to facilitate the production of legal, sustainable and deforestation-free cocoa. We tested this hypothesis by studying the impact of cocoa certification (UTZ-Rainforest Alliance) on the livelihoods of small-scale farmers (owning a cocoa plantation of between 0.5 ha and 5 ha), who contribute to almost 90% of Cameroon's production. Three production systems for smallholder cocoa farmers were compared: (1) shaded cocoa without certification; (2) shaded cocoa with certification; (3) cocoa on grasslands with certification. Data collection was done through a review of scientific and technical documentation as well as quantitative and qualitative interviews with 63 farmers in the Central, South, South-West and Coastal regions between March and May 2019. This information was used to develop the operating accounts of these agents, which were then synthesized for the three stereotypes of producers: 1. Non-certified small producers have a net profit rate of 4% and a value added of 471,984 CFA francs per tonne. This mode of cocoa production is a low-profit-making activity and weakened by an increase in production costs, which is not compensated by an improvement in turno