Talk:Coca eradication

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I noticed that this wonderful article misses one little factoid I picked up when I travelled to Peru. The coca plant is also brewed in coca tea as a cure for altitude sickness. I tried to edit this fact in, but it doesnt sound right, any help would be good - Torien

Thanks, you're quite right. -- Viajero 12:36, 13 Aug 2003 (UTC)

No problem, this marks my first unkilled contribution to Wikipedia - Torien

Something should be said about the Genetically Modified (GM) coca plants being engineered in colombia right now. It's estimated that the majority of coca plants will be resistant to spraying efforts by the government in a few years: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/columbia.html

--Yes, more info on (and an independent verification of) the RoundUp resistant coca trees would be nice. Note that the author found that the Boliviana negra strain is NOT Genetically Modified, but rather the RoundUp resistance is a trait encouraged thru artifical selection. That's old school plant breeding, not genetic engineering. The article also reports that farmers are forced to grow Boliviana negra after aerial spraying kills their food sources. -Zirconscot 22:26, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

The article mentions the environmental impact of eradication programs but fails to mention the enivronmental impacts of coca production. Firstly, aerial fumigation is only used as part of the Colombia eradication efforts. In Boliva and Peru eradication is 100% manual. The concerns over long-term impacts of aeiral fumigation are valid and need to be monitored carefully. However, to claim that manual eradication has negative environmental impacts is simply incorrect. The primary causes of increased soil erosion and desnuding of hill sides in Bolivia, particularly in the Yungas region, is coca production. Coca production is increasingly chemically intensive and with 3-4 harvests per year strips the land of nutirents quickly requiring farmers to move to another forested area in order to chaqueo (clearing then burining). This practice has left the steep hill-sides of the Yungas extremely susceptible to erosion and landslides. In the Chapare region, coca production is the major cause of deforestation in the Madidi, Carrasco, and Amboro national parks...one of the most diverse biological corridors in the world. Even in Colombia where aerial fumigation is used, the more serious environmental risk stems directly from coca processing: rivers and streams in the Putumayo province are choked with the toxic chemicals used to make coca paste: sulferic acid, hydrochloric acid, diesel fuel, acetone, and toulene.

Also, I edited the section on socio economic impact to include current export figures for alternative crops in Bolivia.

For purposes of disclosure, I work on a rural development project (not related to eradication) in coca growing regions of Bolivia; these views represent opinions based on my own observations rather than the views of any government or organization. Jdubinbolivia 15:59, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

January 2008 clean up

I removed dead links which I could not trace back to title or source and cleaned up the references in such a way that titles, authors and sources are now available. However, the article needs a further clean up contentwise. Mentioning the areas cultivated in square kilometers is not common and should be put in hectares. As it is now it is rather silly. - Mafia Expert (talk) 15:03, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

What purpose does the quote serve?

I'm not saying I disagree with it but it doesn't really serve any purpose and kind of editorializes the article. It would be better if there were several quotes with several different opinions rather than just one opinion.

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