Photo: Bosque de Niebla, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Kindly provided by Jenni Contreras.

The production of one gram of cocaine requires the destruction of four square metres of forest, Colombian vice president Francisco Santos said in a lecture at UNU Centre in Tokyo on 28 October, and creates an estimated 625 grams of waste and 200 millilitres of contaminated water which are dumped straight into the environment.

In a lecture that reframed the dangers of cocaine in stark terms, Santos demonstrated the devastating effects that cocaine production has on the environment of Colombia, the second most biologically diverse country in the world after Brazil. Colombia, he said, was only a trafficking route prior to 1990 when production, following market forces, then moved up the route to be closer to consumers. He warned that equatorial Africa, which has become a major route into European markets (Britain and Spain now have prevalence rates of usage as high or higher than the US) could suffer the same fate as Colombia and become a centre of production.

In addition to the “silent ecocide” caused by cocaine, Santos also called its production a major threat to democracy in the region.

Vice President Francisco Santos speaking at UNU. Photo: Curtis Christophersen/UNU.

The Colombian vice president was speaking on the concept of Shared Responsibility, an internationally recognised principle that calls for all parties affected by the global problem of illicit drugs to joint action. The event was organised by the Inter-American Development Bank, the Embassy of Colombia, and United Nations University.

Watch the lecture on UNU’s video portal:

Webcast

Download the vice president’s presentation:

Shared Resonsibility presentation (1.6 MB PDF)