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These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press

September 29, 2002, Sunday, BC cycle

SECTION: International News

LENGTH: 891 words

HEADLINE: Cocaine industry causes widespread destruction of rain forest in Peru

BYLINE: By CRAIG MAURO, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: MONZON, Peru

BODY:

Swaths of scarred earth blanket the hillsides of this jungle valley - the environmental testament of a cocaine trade striving to meet demand in the United States and Europe.

Some 5.7 million acres of Peruvian rain forest have been hacked down in the last three decades to grow coca, a shrub leaf that is the base ingredient of cocaine, experts estimate. More than 14,800 tons of toxic chemicals are dumped into the Amazon jungle every year as traffickers turn coca into raw cocaine paste.

Poisoned water, soil erosion, landslides and the extinction of plant and wildlife species are the immediate results. In the long term, lush tropical valleys such as the Monzon could end up mostly desert in a matter of decades, environmentalists warn.

"We're talking about one of the richest natural ecosystems in the world and it's being destroyed piece by piece," said Jonathan Jacobson, an environmental specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Peru's capital, Lima.

The Monzon River valley stretches eastward for about 40 miles from the Andes mountains into high jungle that gradually gives way to the vast lowlands of the Amazon rain forest.

Dropping from 6,600 feet to 2,000 feet above sea level, the Monzon sits in a geographical region known in Peru as the "eyebrow of the jungle." The varied altitude nourishes a wide range of plant and animal species, making the valley a hotbed for biological diversity.

Since the 1980s, however, the Monzon has also been a hotbed of the drug trade.

In 2001, it produced almost 20 percent of Peru's coca crop. It is the largest coca valley in the Upper Huallaga River region, a network of similar valleys that together constitute the most important drug-producing corridor in Peru.

The characteristics that provide for the Monzon Valley's natural beauty also make it ideal for coca growers.

The river cuts through steep hillsides, which provide well-drained soil best suited for growing coca. And access to the region is poor, making it hard for police or soldiers to get to the hills, which begin about 200 miles northeast of Lima.

Streams ripple across the dirt road that connects settlements of poor farmers with Tingo Maria, an outpost on the Huallaga River that was a cocaine boom town in the 1980s and 1990s.

Able to have their leaves picked four times a year, coca plants need exclusive use of soil, leading farmers to weed constantly and to overuse pesticides, said Raul Araujo, a forestry engineer at the National University of the Jungle in Tingo Maria.

A plot remains productive from four to 10 years, after which the land is useless, Araujo said. Farmers then abandon it to slash and burn another patch of forest for cultivation.

"Since they've used a lot of chemicals, the soil gets contaminated and unproductive," he said. "That makes it like a sterile desert, which is why we're talking about 100,000 to 120,000 hectares (250,000-300,000 acres) in the Upper Huallaga that are in the process of desertification."

The combination of constant harvesting, weeding and pesticide use on steep plots also results in more soil erosion than most crops, said Jacobson at the U.S. Embassy.

The government estimates a quarter of deforestation in Peru has been caused by coca cultivation.

Of the country's coca-growing valleys, Monzon shows perhaps the most visible destruction. Patches of brown dirt cover the landscape like a quilt, with clefts where eroded soil has collapsed in landslides.

More damage lies beneath the surface.

Converting coca into cocaine requires soaking the leaves in a toxic soup of chemicals such as sulfuric acid, kerosene and organic solvents to create an intermediate form of raw cocaine paste.

The paste is usually exported from coca-growing valleys to be refined into cocaine elsewhere, leaving behind abandoned "marinating" pits under the jungle canopy. Chemicals seep into the groundwater, eventually contaminating streams and rivers.

People who lived in the Monzon 40 years ago say a net tossed into the river used to haul in a slew of fish. Today, they say, the fish are mostly gone.

For now, scientists must rely on such anecdotal evidence to estimate the damage, since it's too dangerous to conduct comprehensive studies in an area overrun with hostile traffickers.

Most coca farmers in the Monzon valley refuse to acknowledge the crop is hurting the very environment that provides their livelihoods.

In any case, stopping the desperately poor farmers from cultivating coca will be difficult as long as there is demand for cocaine in rich nations.

Standing on his coca plot above the rushing Monzon River, Marcelino Ortiz, 52, said coca fetches far more money than any legal crop, making it too hard not to grow it.

"We're poor people in an underdeveloped country," he said. "And we'll sell coca to anyone who comes to buy it. Who knows where it's headed?"

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On the Net:

Case study from American University: http://www.american.edu/ted/perucoca.htm

U.S. State Department on environmental degradation in Andes: http://www.usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/andes/homepage.htm

CIA on narcotics damage to environment: http://www.rainforestweb.org/Rainforest(underscore)Regions/South(und erscore) http://www.cia.gov/saynotodrugs/environment(underscore)b.html

South America rain forest information portal: America

GRAPHIC: AP Photos NY314-317 of Sept. 23, Graphic FRN PERU COCAINE

LOAD-DATE: September 30, 2002