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SATELLITE IMAGING OF NARCOTICS ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
With the advent of increasingly sophisticated satellite imagery, the link between illicit drug cultivation and environmental degradation has now been firmly established. The IKONOS satellite, launched in 1999 by the American company Space Imaging, permits scientists to distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as one meter in size - and it has rapidly become one of the most potent tools available for determining the nature and extent of such environmental damage. By harvesting visual information, this highly sensitive satellite has helped experts measure the impact of narcotics-related environmental damage in the Andean countries of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. The tropical forests in this region are being depleted at an alarming rate, and one significant contributor to this trend is the cultivation of illicit narcotics crops: cannabis, coca and opium poppy. Deforestation, soil erosion and soil nutrient depletion, along with watershed sedimentation and extinction of entire species of both flora and fauna, are among the most disturbing by-products of illicit drug crop cultivation. Recent IKONOS images have helped to pinpoint some of the suspected differences between land areas used by indigenous peasant farmers and fields harvested for illicit purposes. In contrast to the peasant farmers who engage in subsistence agriculture, coca growers often seek to develop fields that are naturally shielded from easy observation. Fearing the law and hoping to avoid unwanted attention, these growers generally favor remote and isolated cultivation plots in steep hillsides and barely accessible terrain. Satellite imaging, however, can clearly identify drug crops under cultivation in cleared areas that have been carved out of unbroken forest. Furthermore, remote satellite imaging confirms that illicit drug crop cultivation has spilled into protected national parks and biological reserves in the Andean countries. One classic example is the deforestation by coca growers of national park preserves west of the Chapare region of Bolivia. The governments of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru have had considerable difficulty in slowing the rate of deforestation. Consequently, some of the most important ecosystems in the upper Amazon Basin have been destroyed. Studies indicate that if these vulnerable regions are not adequately protected, the present forest reserves will be consumed in less than 40 years. |