Coca Plantation Ruins 2.3 Million Hectare Forests in Peru

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 14, 2002

Coca Plantation Ruins 2.3 Million Hectare Forests in Peru

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Drug traffickers have destroyed about 2.3 million hectares of forests in Peru in the last two decades for growing coca to produce cocaine, Lima-based El Comercio daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.

It cited experts with the Anti-Narcotics Office of the U.S. Embassy in Lima as saying that the provinces of San Martin, Ayacucho, Apurimac and Huanuco are the most affected areas.

Jonathan Jacobson, environmental adviser of the U.S. office, said in the investigation report that the extensive devastated areas include jungle valleys suitable for growing coca-leaf crops.

The experts base the report on an analysis of satellite pictures, which also show the burning and chopping of trees has posed soil erosion and land-slide hazards, as well as environmental damages. This has also a serious consequence on biodiversity, and aggravates global warming and air pollution.

It is also found that each year to destroy forests for growing coca, about 13,500 tons of chemicals -- pesticides, fungicides and weed-killer -- were used, many of them highly toxic and even banned. These chemicals, after being washed down by rains, have entered rivers and the food chains.

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