Ecobreves – PERU: Coca Growers Deforest the Amazon

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

LIMA, May 10 2004 (IPS) - Illegal coca plantations have caused environmental damage to the Peruvian Amazon of an estimated 1.5 billion dollars, due to clearing of forest and logging, says an official report from the Peruvian government. The report was presented in early May by Lucio Batallana, head of the environmental division at the National Commission for Development and Life Without Drugs, which promotes the eradication of illicit drug crops.

“In a bid to escape poverty, every year thousands of families from the Andean sierra migrate to the tropical regions, where they clear an average of five hectares of forest in order to grow one hectare of coca,” the raw material for cocaine.

Dating back to the Inca Empire, the indigenous peoples have chewed coca leaves, which are consumed today in this way by four million Peruvians, according to the National Statistics Institute. But the illegal drug trade acquires 85 percent of the 53,000 tons of coca produced annually in Peru.