PRESS BRIEFING ON ANDEAN COCA CULTIVATION

Press briefing on Andean coca cultivation

Coca cultivation continued to decline throughout the Andean region -– Bolivia, Colombia and Peru –- in 2003, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing today.

Vincent McClean, of the New York Office, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the total area under coca cultivation in the three Andean countries, which produced virtually all of the world’s cocaine, had declined by 20 per cent since the General Assembly’s 1998 Special Session on Drugs, reaching a 14-year low of 153,800 hectares this year.

The 2003 Coca Cultivation Surveys for Bolivia, Colombia and Peru were launched jointly today at the Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters in WashingtonD.C. by UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa.  Presenting the survey here in New York, Mr. McClean noted that the results showed that coca cultivation in Colombia in 2003 had been reduced by 16 per cent from 2002, from 102,000 to 86,000 hectares, while Peru had witnessed a decline of 5.4 per cent, from 46,700 to 44,200 hectares.

Bolivia’s first nationwide coca cultivation survey showed that 23,600 hectares were under coca cultivation, only half the level estimated in the early and mid-1990s, he continued.  Worryingly, however, there had been an estimated increase in coca cultivation in the Yungas of La Paz, which accounted for 69 per cent of the total coca cultivation in Bolivia.  Considerable concern had also been expressed about coca cultivation encroachment upon national parks in the Chapare region.

The declining level of coca cultivation in Colombia, he said, had largely resulted from the forced crop eradication campaign brought by the Colombian Government, with the support of the United States, although voluntary eradication and the provision of alternative livelihood for farmers had also contributed.

Coca cultivation had disappeared in some former major cultivation areas of Peru, he noted, while the national decline was attributable to forced and voluntary eradication programmes, as well as alternative livelihood schemes.

Overall, the percentage of coca surface remained low as a share of total arable land, he stated.  However, coca tended to be cultivated in tropical forest areas and, thus, represented an environmental threat due to the clearing of forest areas for cultivation, as well as the side effects of run-off from chemicals used in drug production and disposal difficulties faced by law enforcement.

Moreover, while the global level of potential cocaine production had shown a declining trend in recent years, the possibility that reduced coca cultivation could be counterbalanced by increased productivity at the coca farm level must be taken seriously.  It was not time for governments to lower their guard, or for the international community to diminish its support.  The main cocaine consumer markets in the Americas and Europe must also strengthen their demand-reduction efforts.

Responding to a range of questions on the international drug trade, Mr. McClean confirmed that the United States remained the world’s largest cocaine market, with an estimated 7.4 million users.  However, cocaine use was also increasing in Europe.

Noting that the price of cocaine increased exponentially the closer it got to the market, he agreed that rebel groups and terrorist organizations in the Andean countries –- and around the world -- received substantial funding from drug trafficking.

However, he continued, activities had been undertaken aimed at strangling that cash flow.  For example, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had established a Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which had recommended ways to tighten controls on financial flows, and had effectively imposed sanctions on Governments not meeting its standards.

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