Illicit coca cultivation expanded in the Amazon basin and the Andean region the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) indicated in its Annual Report 2023 released this March. This expansion, the report indicates, significantly impacts local ecosystems and biodiversity, leading to substantial deforestation, soil degradation, and loss of flora and fauna diversity.
Illicit drug production indiscriminately uses chemicals to boost harvests, leading to widespread contamination, while vast areas of forests are cleared to expand cultivation — giving rise to narco-deforestation.
“The coca grower sees that selling coca leaf is not lucrative but turning it into drugs is. Therefore, to accelerate its production, he applies various technologies, all of which pollute. So, if in the past coca was harvested three times a year, today there are sectors where it’s harvested up to five times a year,” Pedro Yaranga, a Peruvian international expert who specializes in drug trafficking, told Diálogo on April 18. “The consequence is greater destruction of the environment, water, soil, and air. This practice is highly contaminating because of the pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides they use, most of which are not authorized for the market.”
“In countries in the Amazon basin such as Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, the expansion of drug trafficking organizations is causing forest loss, violence, and an increase in other illicit activities such as illegal mining,” environmental news site Mongabay reported.
Drug trafficking is directly related to various forms of environmental exploitation, warns the INCB report. In Central America, drug cartels “harmoniously” diversify their activities with illegal logging, illegal mining, and wildlife trafficking. Activities that are often accompanied by various related crimes, from bribery to violence.
“While in Central America drug trafficking indirectly drives changes in land use with deforestation due to illicit land and capital control practices, in Ecuador environmental deterioration and degradation of natural resources due to coca cultivation and cocaine production endanger vulnerable livelihoods on the border with Colombia,” the INCB said. “Meanwhile, throughout the Amazon basin, violent disputes between local communities and drug traffickers are frequently reported because of illegal occupation of properties. In the tri-border area between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, there is intense illegal deforestation, driven by the illegal timber trade, as well as drug trafficking.”
This increase in illicit drug production contributes to climate change through deforestation and soil degradation, “but also because it takes more than 300 liters of gasoline to produce 1 kilogram of cocaine,” the report indicated.
“The chemical that worries us most is potassium permanganate because it has manganese, a heavy metal that is practically impossible to recover or extract from water or soil and affects humans, animals, and flora,” INCB Vice President César Arce told Mongabay. “There are other products such as sulfuric acid, kerosene, ether, or acetone that, while highly polluting, are diluted, evaporate, or dissolve. The permanganate remains and cannot be extracted when the water is treated. In our countries there is not yet a system that filters that out.”
Currently, there is no entity in the Latin American region that carries out permanent monitoring of how contaminated riverbeds and soils are due to the use of chemicals for cocaine manufacture, Arce said.
Combating demand
The INCB urges governments, with the support of the international community, to take immediate action against these threats; action that must prioritize the safety and well-being of local, indigenous, and vulnerable populations, as well as environmental protection.
“Striking a balance between combating drug-related crime and minimizing environmental damage remains a complex challenge. Addressing the environmental impact of illicit drug trafficking requires a comprehensive approach,” Yaranga said.
“International cooperation is essential, given the potential of drug-related crime to harm ecosystems and human well-being,” the INCB indicated. “To articulate coordinated responses, these must include comprehensive law enforcement activities, environmental protection measures and sustainable development strategies.”