Abstract

OSORIO G, Ana Rocío. Aproximaciones a los efectos ambientales, sociales y económicos de la erradicación de cultivos ilícitos por aspersión aérea en Colombia. Agroalim [online]. 2003, vol.8, n.17, pp.61-72. ISSN 1316-0354.

Increasingly, the social and political conflicts in Colombia take on more violent and more complex expressions. Plan Colombia is the government’s strategy to promote structural changes that affect the roots of violence and to achieve peace. For them, they must consider acting on different fronts simultaneously, tying negotiation strategies with the insurgents to strengthening of the State, reconstruction of social fiber, stimulation to the economy, actions against narco-trafficking and illicit cultivations, as well as the protection of human rights and the environment. The present work reflects on the proposed fight against drugs in Colombia directed principally towards fumigation of peasant coca, poppy and marihuana cultivations. Experience has demonstrated that the fight against narco-trafficking based on repression, fumigation and eradication of cultivation alone is not enough. On the one hand, the number of hectares cultivated continues to rise; and on the other hand, because of the perceived effects on health and the environment in general, due to fumigation by glifosato. For this reason, the national government has proposed the development of alternative production schemes for the small producers. This work shows the need to develop appraisement methodologies to understand the environmental, social and economic effects of the cultivation eradication program taking into account a comparative analysis between the results of manual eradication and eradication by air aspersion, the central objective of Plan Colombia.

Keywords : illicit cultivation; narco-traffic; Plan Colombia; environmental appraisement; violence; air aspersion; gliphosate.