Environmental and Social Consequences of Coca/Cocaine in Peru: Policy Alternatives and a Research Agenda

Abstract

The demand for illicit drugs can leverage dramatic changes in land cover and associated native biological diversity. These changes, in turn, can lead to loss of critical habitats and rare species of plants and animals, in addition to the degradation of remaining habitats and the contamination of water bodies. Concomitantly, demand can transform social and economic processes, acting against the interests of long-time residents, such as indigenous groups, by attracting new colonists and fomenting crime and violence. Given these potential interconnections between illicit drugs and grave social and environmental consequences, it is more than peculiar that so much scholarly work on environmental transformations does not consider drug-related causes in those countries that supply or transship the drugs. Examples of this myopia include most of the literature on tropical deforestation, where illicit drugs are ignored (e.g., Anderson 1990; Wood 1990; Dove 1993; Myers 1993; Place 1993; Rudel 1993; Brown and Pearce 1994; Jepman 1995; Goldsmith 1998; Barraclough and Ghimere 2000; Horta 2000). The chapters in this book partly correct this deficit and I provide here information for the case of Peru and for “coca/cocaine.” In this chapter, I provide an overview of the way these processes have acted in Peru in relation to the demand for coca leaves, which are transformed into cocaine paste and cocaine. I find great spatial heterogeneity in the negative impacts, at least some of which can be explained by the values and practices of particular social groups. A political ecology approach is helpful in this assessment because by definition illicit drugs intermix the power of governments and economic forces with outcomes toward and resistance by local peoples. I begin by characterizing “coca/ cocaine,” first disaggregating the two words and then showing how the associated processes have affected geopolitics acting upon and within Peru. Then, I examine the evidence available for the effects of coca/cocaine on local landscapes inhabited by indigenous and other social groups. Finally, I outline the known environmental consequences. In the conclusion, I provide the elements necessary for a more complete research agenda that, in turn, could provide the information needed to explore policy alternatives for the social actors involved.