SANTA MARTA 4 FEBRUARY, 2005
On behalf of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC I want to express my gratitude for this award, issued by the University of Magdalena.
As it is well known that the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta was declared by UNESCO as a biosphere reservation. It is the highest mountain in the world that is located next to the sea, and is full of unique biological species. It is also important for its complex eco-systems, which create key conditions for the equilibrium of the region in terms of climate, biology and socio-economic factors.
Notwithstanding the above, the Sierra Nevada is now being affected by coca crops. According to our illicit crop monitoring programme, in December 2003 there were 800 hectares of coca inside the national park.
Illicit crops in Colombia have caused deterioration in terms of deforestation, erosion, river contamination, conflict escalation, and marginalization and degradation of indigenous and peasant communities. For these reasons, the Sierra Nevada is now a preoccupation of national and international organisms that are conscious of its immense ethnical and biological diversity.
For years, both illicit drugs and governmental policies for drug control have damaged the Sierras environment. In order for the inhabitants not to continue living out of illegal crops, the State and the international community have to offer them real alternatives for social and economic development, so that the families and the environment do not suffer the consequences of illegal subsistence.
The United Nations considers that the most effective way to fight illicit crops that is both, sustainable and environmentally friendly is alternative development. In fact, the Vienna Convention states Where there are low-profitability peasants structures, alternative development is the most sustainable tool, and it is also more socially and economically appropriate than forced eradication. We consider that our project in the Sierra will demonstrate it.
For alternative development, the environmental dimension is a priority since these zones are environmentally fragile; i.e. if there is a strong geographic correspondence among intervention zones of alternative development projects, and national natural parks or protected zones. In consequence, alternative development has to consider the conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity.
The international conventions are also important to fight illicit crops and recover the environment. This is the case of the Kyoto Convention that has not yet been applied in Colombia, and which deserves a major attention by academics.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic Change was adopted in 1992 as a result of the general preoccupation for the increase in the global temperature, and aims at stabilizing the gases that produce greenhouse effects. The Convention claims that the Parties must generate national inventories of gas emissions, and calls the parties to establish voluntary goals for their reduction.
A topic to highlight in the Kyoto Convention is that it accepts an increase in the individual quota for gas emission applicable to those countries that implement reforestation policies that result from the calculation of CO2 absorbed by new forest. this is an underestimated calculus as it depends on many other factors. Nevertheless, Colombia for its forestry and environmental tradition must start elaborating innovative projects under the scheme presented by the Kyoto Protocol in exchange of projects for conservation and reforestation of zones with illicit crops.
For the above, the UNODC support in the world searches the re-establishment of licit economies and environmental preservation as an exit to drug trafficking and illicit crops.
Santa Marta, 4 February, 2005