Growers of drug crops in the Andean region and Southeast Asia generally locate their fields in remote tropical forest areas, often in hilly or mountainous terrain. Thin soils and limited access to such areas generally discourage the farming of legitimate crops. To clear the way for drug crops, forests are cleared and burned before planting coca. Due to low fertility and the need for concealment from authorities, the fields are often abandoned after two or three growing seasons and new fields are cleared deeper in the forest. This practice accelerates deforestation, and destroys timber and other resources that would otherwise be available from more sustainable uses of forestland. In addition, intensive farming practices on already fragile tropical soils can rapidly lead to environmental degradation and natural resource exhaustion, particularly soil erosion and downstream siltation.

Deforestation caused by narcotics cultivation in highland watersheds increases the severity of floods and droughts. It also can reduce local water supplies downstream of heavily deforested areas because of increased groundwater runoff and increased siltation of streams. Ecological studies show that many undisturbed tropical forests are characterized by infertile, medium- to fine-textured porous soils with clay and silt particles that quickly wash away unless plant roots anchor the soil and absorb large quantities of water. Even fields covered with coca are prone to erosion because these perennial plants are not as effective as the full tropical forest in absorbing water and holding soil in place. In addition, the forest canopy cushions the impact of raindrops that otherwise would be more likely to dislodge soil particles and increase erosion potential.

Forest Destruction in the Andean Region

The expansion of coca cultivation, production, and trafficking in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia has resulted in the destruction of, at an absolute minimum, 2.4 million hectares of fragile tropical forest -- an area the size of El Salvador -- in the Andean region over the last 20 years. The environmental damage caused by the cultivation of illicit coca is cumulative and includes not just the impact of current coca cultivation but also plots abandoned over time and land cleared to support populations engaged in trafficking activities. Traditional coca cultivation, as practiced by indigenous groups in Bolivia, for example, probably causes somewhat less damage to the environment because it occurs in long-established growing areas. The illicit coca crop, however, is produced mainly by large-scale industrial growers -- often immigrants from cities -- who tend to ignore traditional planting methods (such as the use of terracing) and, in their quest for profits, cause severe environmental damage in virgin growing regions newly opened to meet the demands of foreign markets. The cultivation of drug crops has dramatically accelerated the fragmentation of forests in many areas of the Andean region. Today, the fragmentation of forest as a result of coca cultivation in southern Colombia near the border with Ecuador can be easily documented and quantified using satellite images.

Historical Examples: Peru and Bolivia

Peru and Bolivia offer a clear historical precedent of the environmental impact of illicit drug cultivation, although from 1992 to 2000 both nations have reduced dramatically the amount of land on which coca is cultivated. According to the 2001 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report prepared by the U.S. Government, coca cultivation in Bolivia fell in that eight-year period, from 48,000 to 22,000 hectares, with illicit coca cultivation having been virtually eliminated. The corresponding figures in Peru were even more dramatic, as the amount of land used for growing coca dropped from 129,000 to under 34,000 hectares.

The expansion of coca farming in both countries in the 1970s and 1980's, however, provided clearly documented proof how such illicit drug cultivation leads to the destruction of tropical forest resources. According to one Peruvian conservationist, coca leaf was the largest cultivated crop in the Peruvian Amazon in the 1980s and accounted for a significant percentage of total deforestation there in the 1970s and 1980s.

According to State Department estimates, Peruvian coca cultivation in the early 1970s amounted to only some 16,000 hectares and largely served the needs of the indigenous population. Between 1970 and 1987, the destruction of rain forests from coca cultivation in the Upper Huallaga Valley alone equaled more than 200,000 hectares, according to a study conducted by a Peruvian forestry expert. Across Peru's entire Amazon River basin, coca plantings, along with processing and trafficking activities, caused the destruction of another 700,000 hectares of jungle -- 10 percent of the total rain forest destruction in Peru this century -- according to a 1987 study.

In Bolivia, slash-and-burn clearing for newer coca fields resulted in the destruction of nearly 40,000 hectares of forestland in the Chapare region of central Bolivia between the mid-1980s and the 1990s. Some narcotics cultivators, in anticipation of government eradication programs, expanded and decentralized their plantings, further contributing to the increase in the number of areas cleared for coca cultivation. Even the traditional use of terracing by growers in the Yungas region in western Bolivia did not eliminate soil erosion there. As in the case of Peru's older growing areas, more and more of Bolivia's land was left vulnerable to erosion as growers abandoned aging, worn-out fields and opened up new ones.

The clearing of tropical forest lands for narcotics cultivation in the Andean region contributed to changing patterns in Amazonian water resources. For example, the seasonal flood crest for Peru's Huallaga River in Tingo Maria rose significantly from the 1960s to the 1970s as a result of increased water runoff from extensive deforestation of the Huallaga watershed, according to a 1980 study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In November 1987, heavy rains in the Upper Huallaga Valley resulted in the worst flooding in Peru's history, according to Lima press reports, causing massive landslides that killed scores of rural residents.

Colombia

Deforestation caused by illicit coca growers was less severe during the 1970s and 1980s in Colombia than in Peru or Bolivia. But during the 1990s this situation reversed as drug traffickers increasingly used Colombian territory to grow illicit drug crops. Coca cultivation in Colombia expanded by 27,000 hectares, or 175 percent, between 1985 and 1989. It then exploded during much of the 1990s, particularly in the departments of Putumayo and Caqueta, and in Colombia's eastern lowlands. According to the 2001 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the total area in Colombia used for coca cultivation rose nearly four-fold, from 38,000 hectares in 1992 to 136,000 hectares in 2000. In response, the Colombian government launched in late 2000 a major aerial spraying campaign in Caqueta and southwest Putumayo departments, the latter being the site of the densest coca cultivation in the world and the greatest recent expansion of coca cultivation in Colombia. Although the Colombian government had sprayed in other parts of the country for some time, it previously had not sprayed in Putumayo. From late December 2000 through early February 2001, about 20,000 hectares of coca were effectively eradicated through aerial spraying in Caqueta and Putumayo.

Academic studies report that Colombian growers abandon their fields after three to four years as their plants decline in yield, as compared with an average life of 15 to 20 years for Bolivian and Peruvian coca fields. Thus the fields are abandoned and more rainforest is cleared for replacement coca fields. The extensive land clearing for production of another major illicit drug in Colombia, opium poppy, reportedly even exacerbated the damage and death toll from earthquake-triggered landslides in western Colombia in the late 1990s.

In the wake of government suppression of narcotics activities in Peru and Bolivia, coca cultivation increasingly shifted in the 1990s from those two countries to eastern and southwestern Colombia (Caqueta and Putumayo departments in particular), where in total more than 100,000 hectares of tropical forests have since been cleared and planted with coca. It is estimated that an additional 6,000 to 8,000 hectares of tropical forest, mainly in montane regions of the Colombian Andes, have been cleared for the cultivation of opium poppy, the raw material used in the production of opium paste.

Chemical Dumping: Byproduct of the Drug Industry

The environmental impact of the drug trade cannot be measured solely in terms of the hectares or square kilometers affected. The very act of refining raw coca leaves into finished cocaine creates significant environmental damage because of the irresponsible disposal of large amounts of toxic chemicals used in the process.

Production of cocaine is a three-step process: from raw coca leaves to coca paste, from coca paste to cocaine base, and then finally from cocaine base to finished cocaine HCl. During each of these production steps, drug traffickers use a significant quantity of chemicals that afterwards are dumped into the surrounding region.

In the first phase of converting raw coca leaves to coca paste, usually done near the site of the coca cultivation, the leaves are placed in a container or plastic-lined pit to which a strong acid (such as sulfuric acid) and water are added. Kerosene is added to the solution. After the mixture is agitated, the cocaine alkaloids and kerosene separate from the water and coca leaves. The water and leaves are removed, and sodium carbonate is added to the acid-kerosene solution to cause a precipitate. The acid-kerosene solution is then dumped onto the ground and/or drained off into a nearby stream or river, and the precipitate filtered and dried to produce coca paste.

The second phase of converting coca paste to cocaine base can be done in place at the coca paste refining site or at an off-site laboratory that may or may not be located near the coca cultivation zone. In a commonly used formula, the coca paste is dissolved by sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid in water. Potassium permanganate is then combined with water and added to the paste/acid solution. The resulting solution is filtered and the precipitate discarded. Ammonia water is added to the filtered solution to cause the raw cocaine base to precipitate, and the waste chemical liquids are drained into a nearby stream or river.

In the final stage of converting cocaine base to cocaine hydrochloride, acetone or ether is used to dissolve the cocaine base. Hydrochloride acid diluted in acetone or ether is added to the cocaine solution. The remaining acetone or ether solvent is either discarded or recycled.

A study conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1993 of cocaine production in the Chapare region of Bolivia showed that production of one kilo of cocaine base required the use of three liters of concentrated sulfuric acid, 10 kilos of lime, 60 to 80 liters of kerosene, 200 grams of potassium permanganate, and one liter of concentrated ammonia.

Disposing of the chemicals used at all stages of narcotics cultivation and processing also devastates tropical ecosystems. Processors discard their poisonous waste byproducts indiscriminately, often dumping them into the nearest waterway, where the extent of damage is greatly increased. They also may dump these chemicals on the ground, where as point sources they may infiltrate through the soil to groundwater. Substances applied to fields in excessive amounts are also washed by rainfall into the local watershed. These chemicals damage plants and animals directly or indirectly via the food chain. The dissolved oxygen content of the water may also be reduced to a point suffocating to animal life, and water turbidity may increase so as to block sunlight from plants. Moreover, humans who consume plant or animal products from this polluted food chain are at risk from numerous possible carcinogens.

Chemicals in the Andean Region

As is evident, chemicals are used in massive amounts during the three-step refining process needed to produce cocaine. A scientific report in the 1990s from the National Agrarian University in Lima, Peru, for example, corroborated claims that as much as 600 million liters of so-called precursor chemicals are used annually in South America for cocaine production. This translates to more than two metric tons of chemical waste generated for each hectare of coca processed to produce cocaine.

According to press reports and scientific surveys, coca cultivators throughout Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia also use large quantities of toxic pesticides to help clear new lands and to control weeds and other pests in their plots. In addition, there are the environmental problems caused by spent (extracted) coca leaves: these are dumped into piles, usually by a stream if the refining laboratory happens to be situated there. The leaves are saturated with toxic chemicals; as they decay, they constitute a major point source of contamination for any nearby body of water, since they contribute a huge load of organic matter to the water. This increases the biological oxygen demand and can seriously degrade a small stream for some distance.

The historical record again provides compelling evidence of the ecological havoc wrought by drug trafficking. In 1986 alone, traffickers in Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley dumped more than 100 million liters of poisonous waste -- gasoline, kerosene, sulfuric acid, and toluene -- into the watershed of the Huallaga River in the course of producing coca paste, according to a report from Lima's National Agrarian University. Ecological experts attested that many of the tributaries of the Huallaga River -- which empties into the Amazon River -- were almost entirely devoid of many species of plant and animal life and far exceeded pollution standards established by the World Health Organization. In addition, the residues of herbicides - for example, paraquat and 2,4-D -- and insecticides used by coca growers on their crops contaminated adjacent forest areas and may have damaged the land when applied in excess of recommended amounts, according to an article published in the Peruvian environmental magazine Medio Ambiente.

Similarly, in Bolivia millions of liters of used toxic chemicals were indiscriminately dumped into the soil and neighboring streams from crude coca paste and base laboratories. The magnitude of the problem was evident in the fact that in just two years, from 1987 to 1989, authorities destroyed more than 11,000 coca paste labs in Bolivia, primarily in the Chapare.

After many cocaine processing labs moved into remote jungle locations in eastern and southern Colombia, the ecological damage from precursor chemical pollution has now increased in that nation as well. As the world's current primary processor of refined cocaine (cocaine hydrochloride, or cocaine HCl), Colombia now finds its ecosystem suffering from the massive, unregulated, and irresponsible dumping of precursor chemicals. Large quantities of ethyl ether, acetone, and hydrochloric acid are required to refine coca base into cocaine HCl and are then dumped from laboratories into nearby streams that provide the water required for the three-step conversion processes.

Glyphosate and the Environment

Aerial eradication of illicit drug crops in Colombia is done only with glyphosate, one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. Glyphosate is used at present in more than 100 nations, including the United States, where an estimated 17 to 22 million kilos are applied annually. Less than 10 percent of the total amount of glyphosate used each year in Colombia is related to the aerial eradication program; more than 90 percent is used by local farmers for the pre-seeding of rice, cotton, corn, sorghum, barley and soybean crops, and for weed control in coffee, banana and other fruit plantations, and as a ripening agent in sugar cane production. It is even used by growers of opium poppy and coca to control weeds.

Glyphosate has been the subject of an exhaustive body of scientific literature, based on independent research and subjected to peer review in the scientific community, that has shown it not to be a health risk to humans. Glyphosate is in fact one of the least harmful herbicides available on the world market. It kills only plants that are above ground at the time of spraying through contact with their leaves. Once glyphosate comes into contact with soil, it stops acting as a herbicide and is quickly broken down by microorganisms and biodegrades. Some glyphosate products are among the few herbicides approved for direct application to aquatic weeds or for vegetation control near ponds, streams, and waterways.

Toxicological studies have shown glyphosate to be less toxic than common salt, aspirin, caffeine, nicotine, and even Vitamin A. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has declared that glyphosate is non cancer-causing in humans and poses little risk for genetic defects. It is only slightly toxic to wild birds and practically non-toxic to fish. The minimal amount of the substance that fish, birds, and mammals retain is rapidly eliminated. Glyphosate is considered so benign that it is even used for vegetation control on the Galapagos Islands, one of the most fragile and environmentally sensitive areas in the world.

Global Consequences

In addition to the often destructive impact of the drug trade on local and regional environments, there may be environmental repercussions on a larger scale as well. Although the contribution of narcotics cultivation and processing to the global scale of deforestation and pollution is minor, the drug trade, unlike legitimate enterprises, cannot be controlled by official environmental regulations. In this light, the extensive destruction of tropical rain forests in the Andean region and Southeast Asia has significant economic opportunity costs. Moreover, the loss of forests to expanding drug crop cultivation contributes to potentially harmful atmospheric changes and to the loss of rare plant material from which future pharmaceutical drugs and hardy food crops might be developed. Drug crop cultivation has added another powerful but deleterious economic incentive for tropical forest clearing, which in turn impacts biodiversity, soil fertility, and water resources.

The slash-and-burn land clearing that is pervasive in narcotics crop cultivation contributes to changes in the balance of gases in the earth's atmosphere. Burning tropical forests releases large quantities of methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide -- the so-called greenhouse gases. The impact on global climates of the buildup of these gases is not yet clear.

The survival of tropical plant species is important to ensure the future health and productivity of human food sources. The world relies mostly on some 20 plant species as primary food sources, and many of these were originally bred from ancestral genotypes of tropical origin. In the process of breeding these plants for maximum yields, genetic resistances to diseases have been greatly reduced. If disease strikes such modern hybrids, breeding the original genotype back into the plant is one important defensive mechanism. For example, in 1970 a leaf fungus blighted cornfields throughout the eastern United States, eliminating 15 percent of the entire crop and causing losses in excess of two billion dollars. The introduction of blight-resistant plant stock that traced its genetic ancestry back to corn's native habitats in Mexico eliminated the threat from this fungus. It is impossible to predict in advance whether rare plant strains found in ecosystems threatened by illicit drug crop cultivation may be needed for such purposes in the future.

The range and diversity of tropical rain forests are also critical to the development of new drugs. One in every six prescription drugs has a tropical source for its active chemicals. Maladies successfully treated by these compounds include Hodgkin's disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, malaria, and leukemia. The properties of chemicals yet to be tested can only be imagined; the pharmacological activity of anticancer agents discovered in the rosy periwinkle, for example, could not have been guessed on the basis of existing chemical knowledge.

Although the loss of tropical forests due to narcotics cultivation is only part of a much larger deforestation problem, every patch of lost forest is potentially significant because of the incredible diversity of species there. Although they cover only six percent of the earth's surface, these forests shelter at least 50 percent of all plant species, and scientific studies suggest that the remoteness of tropical regions causes many more species to remain undiscovered. In Colombia, for example, some 1,100 vascular plant species have been documented on just 250 hectares of forest land, as compared with about 1,450 species for all of the British Isles.

Colombia: Biodiversity Under Siege

This extraordinarily rich biodiversity of Colombia is under serious threat by narcotics traffickers who are cultivating coca and opium poppy crops in ecologically sensitive regions of the country, according to the Colombian government.

With just 0.7 percent of the world's land mass, Colombia contains 10 percent of Earth's biodiversity, second only to that of its much larger neighbor Brazil, in widely disparate ecosystems ranging from Andean mountain ranges to the rain forests of the Orinoco and Amazon river basins.

The richness of Colombia's natural legacy includes tropical forests covering some 680,000 square kilometers, or more than half the country, as well as 55,000 plant species, 1,721 species of birds, 205 species of lizards, and 430 species of frogs and toads.

The precursor chemicals used in processing heroin and cocaine cause widespread environmental damage to tropical forests and river systems when traffickers discard them. The Colombian government has put the amount of illegal chemical substances dumped by traffickers into the country's ecosystem at more than one million tons since the mid-1980's.

The Colombian government also estimates that the total area currently damaged directly and indirectly by opium poppy cultivation in the Andean forest and mountain region is 78,500 hectares. An additional 425,600 hectares of tropical rain forest in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins are likewise damaged by coca cultivation.

The country's remaining tropical forest regions have one of the highest carbon dioxide sequestration rates in the world, an important element in counterbalancing emissions of greenhouse gases and managing climate change. Since 1985, more than one million hectares of tropical rain forest in Colombia have been destroyed to support cultivation of illicit coca and opium poppy crops.

The Real Costs of the Narcotics Industry

The narcotics industry has obscured the real economic costs and distortions caused by the drug trade. Among these costs are lost opportunities for more sustainable rural economic development because of environmental devastation of tropical zones; at a minimum, more careful harvesting of tropical forests would provide timber for both local use and export. Rare tropical species also offer the possibility of pharmaceutical breakthroughs. The permanent loss of tropical soils and watersheds, however, imposes longer lasting economic damage. Even the cultivation of illicit drug crops becomes impossible when topsoil disappears, and with it, both soil nutrients and the capacity of soil to store water efficiently. More land is then cleared via slash-and-burn techniques, but prospects for alternative economic development in regions such as Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley diminish with the deforestation of the land.

Discouraging as these losses -- potential and otherwise -- may be, there are signs that at least a few nations have become sensitized to the political damage that accrues from letting the drug trade go unopposed. As far back as 1986, for example, former Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga highlighted the indiscriminate and damaging nature of narcotics cultivation on that island to initiate a successful drug crop control program. Targeting the deforestation of Jamaica by marijuana growers in a national television address, Seaga generated popular concern for the environment. This tactic proved instrumental in helping the Jamaican government organize an eradication program that reduced marijuana cultivation by some 80 percent.

The environmental damage caused by the drug trade generally remains unrecognized, even in the nations most immediately affected. The lack of comprehensive data to document the devastating ecological effects of the drug trade partly obscures the issue, as does the widespread, but mistaken, perception in drug-producing nations that the drug trade provides essential foreign exchange and a means of economic livelihood to rural areas.