BOLIVIA ACHIEVES RECORD REDUCTION IN COCA CULTIVATION
Press Release
SOC/NAR/792
BOLIVIA ACHIEVES RECORD REDUCTION IN COCA CULTIVATION
19990113 VIENNA, 13 January (UN Information Service) -- The Government of Bolivia has announced that over the course of last year it eradicated 11,621 hectares of coca in the Chapare region, the country's main illicit coca growing area. During the same period, an estimated 3,620 hectares were replanted with coca in that area, resulting in a net decrease of 8,001 hectares.The total hectarage eradicated and the net decrease in area under cultivation are record figures and represent unprecedented achievement in Bolivian history, according to the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP). Only twice in the 1990s had Bolivia been able to record a net eradication, and in both cases the figure had been in the order of 2,000 hectares.
In congratulating the Bolivian Government on this milestone in the country's fight against illicit narcotic crops, Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention said, "The important results achieved by the Bolivian Government in its eradication campaign are in line with the commitment made by world leaders at the June 1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drug control to eliminate or substantially reduce illicit crops over the coming years. It will go a long way in enabling the country to effectively mobilize the international community in support of Bolivia's plan to eliminate illicit coca cultivations through alternative development by the year 2002."
As of 1 January, a total of 28,000 hectares in Chapare were under coca cultivation, down from 36,000 a year ago. The Bolivian plan envisages eradication of 8,000 hectares of coca per year for the next four years, to culminate in total elimination of illicit narcotic crops by 2002.
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