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borderlands
Author(s): D. S. Salisbury and C. Fagan
Source: GeoJournal , 2013, Vol. 78, No. 1 (2013), pp. 41-60
Published by: Springer
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D. S. Salisbury • C. Fagan
Abstract The cultivation and traffic of coca, Ery- commercial coca fields and transboundary transpor-
throlxylum coca , and coca derivatives remain under- tation routes and identify threats to the conservation
studied threats to the conservation of the Amazon of indigenous landscapes and borderland forests.
rainforest. Currently the crop is transforming land use
Keywords Coca • Conservation • Amazonia •
and livelihoods in the ecologically and culturally rich
borderlands of Amazonian Peru. The isolated nature Border • Peru • Brazil
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used both in traditional medicine and shamanic America and Western Europe, the two regions
practices (Rospigliosi et al. 2004). Traditional estimated
use to have consumed over 70% of global
of the coca leaf appears to have no negative cocaine in 2001-2003 (UNODC 2005a). Regardless
consequences (Duke et al. 1975; Morales 1994) of the end market, the Brazilian magazine, Veja,
while the sharing of leaves and participation in group estimated 45% of cocaine produced in Colombia,
sessions of coca chewing continues to create and Bolivia, and Peru to pass through the Brazilian
strengthen ties between friends and family (Allen Amazon (Peres and Coutinho 2004).
2002; Andrews and Solomon 1975; Morales 1994; Unfortunately, the available data on coca remains
Young 2004a). Indeed, the economic interchange of highly speculative as research on cultivation, eradica-
coca leaf has also fortified ties between highland tion, and trafficking is rife with contradiction. This is in
consumers and foothill producers for at least the last part because the dangerous nature of field research
millennium (Morales 1994; Osborne 1952). limits the quantity and quality of data production.
The eastern slopes and foothills of the Andes Messina and Delamater (2006) found both United
continue to be the principal source of Peruvian coca States and United Nations data on eradication open to
leaf with this Andean cultivation closely associated interpretation. Similar claims can be made about the
with roads and hillside agriculture (Young 2004a). In environmental impacts of coca cultivation and pro-
particular, the valleys of Alto Huallaga, Apurimac- cessing where Álvarez (2007) argues empirical data
Ene, and La Convención-Lares contained 88% of the insufficient for estimating coca related deforestation,
UNODC estimated 50,300 hectares of Peruvian coca chemical impacts, and biodiversity loss.
surface in 2004 (UNODC 2005b). These valleys Empirical data are available on the increase in
dominate popular and academic understandings of overlap between coca coverage and protected areas.
Peruvian coca cultivation with a lack of published Between 2003 and 2004 coca cultivation increased by
literature on coca cultivation in the Amazon border- 71% in the national parks of Bolivia's Chaparé
lands studied here (Plowman 1984; UNODC 2005b). region, as opposed to increasing only 22% outside
Regardless of the location within Peru, the coun- national park boundaries (UNODC 2005c). In 2004,
try's 50,300 hectares of coca fields place Peru second coca cultivation also appeared for the first time inside
to Colombia in coca leaf production among countries the Madidi National Park, which shares hundreds of
worldwide. The UNODC estimates these 50,300 kilometers of border with Peru (UNODC 2005c). In
Colombia, 7% of coca cultivation takes place within
hectares capable of producing 190,000 of coca leaf
(UNODC 2005b), well over the approximately national parks (UNODC 2005d). Thirteen of Colom-
7,500 kg used by Peru's four million traditional users bia's 50 National Parks contain commercial coca
(Rospigliosi et al. 2004) and the small amounts cultivation for a total of over 5,000 hectares of coca
needed for the pharmaceutical industry and as fields (UNODC 2005d). Overlap of coca and national
fiavorants. Thus, the majority of coca leaf production parks is particularly problematic in Colombia where
is driven by the global demand for coca derivative aerial spraying is a common means of eradication,
drugs such as coca paste, cocaine, and crack. with a large margin for error (Messina and Delamater
Coca leaf can be processed into coca paste after 2006) and thus a significant threat to conservation
soaking and trampling the leaves and their residues in(Fjeldsa et al. 2005).
treatments using acids, solvents, and neutralizers While there is little doubt coca cultivation has a
(Morales 1994; Young 1996). Coca paste is a drug negative environmental and social impact, a surpris-
used locally by farmers and processors, or nationally ing number of basic questions remain unanswered
and in neighboring countries by the rural and urban about coca cultivation, eradication, and transport in
poor (Geffray 2001; Maia 2005; Rojas 2002; Scho- the borderlands of Peru and Brazil. What is the extent
nenberg 2001). The distillation of coca paste into of current cultivation? What are the social and
cocaine hydrochloride requires another step often environmental impacts of coca cultivation and erad-
undertaken in laboratories that reduces the volume ication policy? Is eradication less damaging than coca
even as it increases significantly in value (Morales cultivation? And finally, does eradication policy
1994). Once made into readily transportable cocaine, relocate rather than permanently eradicate borderland
the drug can be moved at less cost and risk to North coca cultivation?
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This borderland
conservation units createregion
a transboundary mosaic of ha
continues to 2.3 experience,
million hectares. The headwaters of the Purús int
booms focusedwatershed
on are protected
products as the 2.5 million hectare
like
and more recently timber,
Alto Purús National Park. This is Peru's largest Parkgo
et al. 201 1). and is bordered
The four by the Purús Communal
rivers Reserve, c
study site are
which home
buffers the Park from a mixtu
the titled indigenous
Asháninka, Aguaruna, and
lands located further downstream towards Brazil. I
people, mestizo,
Both study sites Brazilian,
are bordered by territorial reserves a
and loggers, miners, coca
for uncontacted4 indigenous people, thefarme
Isconahua
opportunists. The
Territorial economy
Reserve at the headwaters of the Ucayali
extraction, Rivers, and the Mashco Piro, Madre
particularly de Dios, and
logging
devoted to subsistence with
Murunahua Reserves near the Purús. The presence of th
tive, exception of
these uncontacted people,coca culti
among the last such people
remote upper reaches
on of
earth, underscores the unique these
levels of biocultural
but the mouths of all four rivers can be reached from diversity present in these borderlands.
the city of Pucal lpa in a day or two depending on the
boat. Pucallpa, a bustling frontier city of 300,000
inhabitants, serves as the economic and political hub
Methodology
of Peru's central borderland region.
The Purús site is even more remote, with no roads
While the economic and environmental importance
or rivers connecting it to the rest of Peru and access
of coca cultivation in Amazonian Peru demands close
largely limited to chartered flights from Pucallpa to
study (Young 2004a, b), there are numerous chal-
Puerto Esperanza, the provincial capital and eco-
lenges to conducting coca-focused research in the
nomic hub of the Purús region. Seventy five percent
field (Bradley and Millington 2008; Morales 1994).
of the Purús region's population of 4,000 belongs to
Here we describe the indirect methods we used to
eight indigenous groups (Cashinahua, Sharanahua,
explore the impacts of coca cultivation in the context
Culina, Mastanahua, Amahuaca, Chaninahua, Ash-
of our broader studies on land use, livelihoods, and
áninka and Yine) living in 40 small riverside
conservation in the Ucayali and Purús watersheds.
communities, making it among the most culturally
We use the term indirect methods to describe the
diverse regions in all of Amazonia. The remaining
necessary approach of developing a detailed under-
25% of the population are mestizos and, to a lesser
standing of a dangerous research topic through the
extent, Brazilians living in Puerto Esperanza. Limited
triangulation of three categories of data sourcing: (1)
economic opportunities and isolation discourage
direct observation and deliberate recording in the
immigration to the Purús. The exception is the
field, (2) secondary sources, and (3) passive reception
booming logging industry which employs most
of unsolicited input from a variety of informants. The
mestizo migrants. The communities survive on sub-
sistence activities such as hunting, fishing, and
tending small garden plots (Fagan and Salisbury
2003), although in recent years some have agreed to
exploitative trade agreements with the loggers for
their mahogany trees.
3 Serra do Divisor and Sierra del Divisor mean the dividing
Both sites are conservation priorities due to their
mountain range in Portuguese and Spanish respectively with
relatively undisturbed condition and world-class both the Brazilian and Peruvian protected areas covering half
levels of biodiversity (Leite-Pitman et al. 2003; of the transboundary range.
Scarcello et al. 1998; Vriesendorp et al. 2006). The 4 Uncontacted indigenous people, also called indigenous
four Ucayali watersheds have their headwaters adja- people in voluntary isolation, refers to indigenous people
cent to Brazil's Serra do Divisor National Park, with avoiding all contact with strangers, instead practicing the
isolated hunting, gathering, and gardening based livelihoods
three of the four also overlapping with the Sierra del they have practiced for centuries in the interfluvial zones of the
Divisor Reserved Zone.3 Together these two most remote rainforests.
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questions about coca cultivation could not be asked due Huallaga (CORAH) of the Peruvian Ministry of the
to the dangers of showing interest in the illegal crop. Interior. This GIS vector file contained the polygons
Peruvian authorities' recent eradication efforts in 25 for 2,915 coca fields eradicated in 2003 and 2004.
villages in the Ucayali field site made informantsCORAH topographers constructed these polygons
suspicious of outsiders. Local coca farmers referred to using laser range finding binoculars to measure the
"gringos" with hostility, blaming North Americans for edge of the fields from a georeferenced center point.
funding the eradication. Therefore, we avoided hostileAfter establishing the polygon, the topographers used
villages, however, we still recorded details about Auto Cad software to associate each polygon with
commercial coca cultivation and traditional coca use tabular information observed in the field such as crop
age, condition, and mix of crops before transforming
gained from direct observation and from informants
the data into ArcView format on their return to
offering unsolicited information in less hazardous
portions of the two study sites. CORAH headquarters. This dataset clarified greatly
the extent and impact of coca cultivation observed in
While all of our fieldwork indirectly informed this
the field, and was supplemented further by informa-
study, the field methods most useful to understanding
the coca dynamic included landscape walks, ethnog-tional interviews with CORAH topographers, geog-
raphy, photography, GPS point collection, andraphers, and administrative personnel.
semi-structured interviews. Interviews with expert GIS analysis included use of spatial analyst, buffer
creation, selection by attributes and location, and
informants in protected areas, indigenous territories,
NGO offices, government offices, urban centers, and running descriptive statistics in ArcGIS software to
best understand the relationship of coca fields to
waterways were particularly useful in answering coca
hydrological systems, indigenous territories, pro-
questions informed by field observation but unsafe to
ask directly in the field. tected areas, elevation, and each other. To determine
Overflights, satellite remote sensing, GIS analysis,proximity to hydrological systems we used buffer
document research, and archival research provided wizard and vector files of the major rivers and coca
additional data, analysis, and context for our inter-fields to create a buffer 5 km distant from the midline
of the hydrological systems. We selected coca fields
views and in site field work. Two overflights (October
6, 2004 and August 29, 2006) were conductedaccording to whether their centroid location over-
lapped with the 5 km buffer. The overlap of coca
exclusively in the Purús with the objective of locating
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farmers from the eastern slopes of the Andes changed drug trafficker (Comisión de la Verdad y Reconcil-
demographics drastically. Shipibo-Conibo informants iación et al. 2004).
who inhabit the floodplain region on the lower These formerly isolated one and two family
portion of these rivers depicted the new settlements homesteads carved out of the upland rainforest
upriver as organized by individual coca bosses exploded into coca hamlets, caseríos cocaleros ,
controlling 30-40 workers farming 20-30 hectares replete with coca cultivating colonists, bars, discos,
of coca fields. Existing indigenous and mestizo brothels, alcohol, weapons, and associated drug use,
settlements were transformed by the migrants, with alcoholism, and prostitution. Both our ethnography
one community even renamed after a locally famous and published accounts (Comisión de la Verdad y
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Reconciliación et
and may have al.
undermined 2004)
local livelihoods formerly
violence after the
rooted arrival
in cooperative of
agricultural activity. Instead,
in the former
Abujao, subsistence farmers
Calleria, turned to coca, a rational
an
alone, decision given how much
informants told a coca farmer
of can earn
co
coca buyers from
( the traqueteros
coca leaf produced by 1 hectare of land. )
Piassaba palmAlthough( weAphandra
cannot reliably estimate coca leaf n
while three production
traffickers
in the study site directly, we can extrap-di
themselves. olate production using published United Nations data
from coca cultivation elsewhere on the Ucayali.
Coca boomtowns and the transformation of live-
lihoods have been documented elsewhere in Peru
According to the UNODC, one hectare could con-
(Rojas 2002) and Colombia (Muse 2005; González
servatively produce approximately 860 kg of sun
dried coca leaf at an average farm gate price of 2.8
Posso 2000), although the transformation described
US $ per kg in 2004 (UNODC 2005b) or 2,350 US $6
here may be particularly acute due to the extremely
isolated nature of these borderlands. Indigenous
without the farmer even having to leave his farm.
While conservative, this estimate dwarfs the income
communities in particular struggle to control their
land from well funded and well armed coca farmers,
potential of alternative crops farmed close to the
regional market city of Pucallpa (Table 2) even as the
especially given the lack of investment and support
US $ 2,350 per hectare accounts for as little as 2% of
by governmental and non governmental organizations
the US street value for the same amount of leaf in
in their borderland territories. Indigenous communi-
ties in the Ucayali study site have been offeredcocaine
both form.7
bribes and death threats to plant coca and clear
airstrips. Some communities even tell of occupation
6 While this estimate is extremely conservative it also does not
by Colombians or Shining Path drug traffickers in the
incorporate production costs associated with weeding or
1980s. While some indigenous people profited from
harvesting at approximately 2.1 $ US a day during those work
periods. This daily wage also usually includes breakfast and
coca related opportunities during this period, others
lunch for the laborer.
drove off outsiders by forming aggressive defense
7 Estimating the total worth of the coca production eradicated
committees. Our analysis of 676 eradicated coca
in the fields provides a window to the regional importance of
fields near the indigenous dominated and locally
coca cultivation to these borderlands. Since the coca plant does
renowned coca region of Lago Inés found 92% to
notbe
reach full maturity until 18 months (Morales 1994), we
outside of indigenous lands with the other estimate
8% borderland production using only those fields of at
least 2 years in 2004, or 3,183 hectares according to Table 1.
predating the titling of the indigenous territory inconservative we deduct from this total the un-weeded
To be
question or located in remote areas closer to mestizo
coca fields eradicated in both 2003 and 2004 (1,660 hectares
towns than indigenous villages. The continued resis-
according to Table 1) to arrive at a total of 1,523 coca hectares
with
tance of indigenous people to coca cultivation andplants over 2 years old that are weeded or semi-weeded.
Using the conservative UNODC estimate, 2004 annual
production is of critical importance to biocultural
production of sun dried coca leaf would be approximately
diversity due to the expanse of biodiverse lands
1,309,780 kg for these fields with an estimated worth of
inhabited by a wide range of indigenous groups3,667,384
and US $ at the 2004 farm gate average price. However,
this is just a fraction of the potential profits the narcotraficantes
the documented dangers for indigenous cultures
realize from these fields in coca paste or cocaine. Since
embracing the coca economy (González Posso UNODC
2000).data on the cocaine/leaf ratios is derived from oven
Our fieldwork found the coca economy alsodried rather than sun dried leaf estimates we must reduce the
brought opportunity to the borderlands as laborers
1,309,780 kg of sun dried leaf by 70% to 916,846 kg of annual
could also earn a high daily wage working in theoven
cocadried leaf. According to the UNODC, one kilogram of
cocaine can be processed from 375 kg of oven dried leaf
fields and access and afford better food, clothes, and
(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2005b)
medicine. The quality and quantity of river transpor-
allowing us to grossly estimate 2,445 kg of potential annual
tation also increased dramatically and the formerly
cocaine production from these borderland watersheds. This
isolated residents could now send their children to the amount of cocaine would be worth approximately 53,988,045 $
new schools created to educate the children of the
US in the United States and 111,809,850 $ US in Europe at
wholesale prices (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
coca farmers. However, the influx of coca dollars also
(UNODC) 2005e). Wholesale prices are of course just a
caused inflation in these weak backwater economies fraction of the estimated street prices: 188,265,000 $ US in the
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Product Scientific name, Area Production Annual 2004 Income ($**) Earnings
variety costs* ($**) (a) production (Kg) Price per Kg (d) = b x c ($**) d - a
(b) ($**) (c)
While these conservative estimates underscore the Life without coca equated to a depressed economy,
economic importance of regional coca cultivation anda reduction of transportation options, the flight of
the potential local impacts in terms of inflation and many of the schoolteachers, and a return to a largely
dollarization, the reality is these fields were eradi- subsistence livelihood. While CORAH believed they
cated in 2003 and 2004. Therefore, the regional coca could win over the population and improve their
boom must also be analyzed in terms of the image through donations and agriculture support to
subsequent bust. Table 3 shows the population for the communities (Ministerio de Interior 2003b), our
the middle and upper Calleria River, one of our four own fieldwork and local media coverage (Staff
Ucayali river watersheds, where the inhabitants 2004a) revealed a great deal of dislike for the
resided almost exclusively in caseríos cocaleros , in institution. For example, one Calleria community
1999 and in 2004. Over this 5 year period population received a community rice peeler and seeds from
declined over 67%. However, data from a 2004 CORAH to promote rice production as an alternative
income
census by the local health official state the numbers to earning activity to coca, however, the
be even lower, at 416 people, an 81% decline from majority of the community households showed little
1999. This demographic change transformed the interest in farming rice. Key informants also noted
caseríos cocaleros into ghost towns, pueblos fantas- the inability of the coca farmers elsewhere to
mas, with abandoned houses, under attended schools, successfully incorporate CORAH donations and
and the remaining residents contemplating moving extension into their livelihoods. Many of the remain-
on, pursuing alternative livelihoods, or in some cases
ing Calleria residents hoped to continue farming
gambling on discontinued eradication and replantingcoca, desiring to work with the Peruvian National
their coca. Eradication disturbed both the profes- Coca Enterprise, ENACO,8 to legally sell coca rather
sional coca farmers and the original residents of thesethan switch to alternative crops. Others will likely
pueblos fantasmas who now must re-adapt to life move to either established or new coca cultivation
without coca. centers to maintain a familiar lifestyle. The profes-
sional coca traffickers, however, may be moving into
Footnote 7 continued
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Year 1999 2004 2004a opportunities, coca will likely return rapidly to this
biologically critical area and foreshadow future
Population 2,228 773 416 conflicts between coca and conservation.
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Environmental impacts
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