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This paper examines the positive and negative (or intended and unintended) impacts of anti-drug policies such as the aerial spraying of coca crops in Colombia. It provides spatial analysis of coca cultivation and crop eradication at a fine scale of resolution using the latest UNODC data. The findings suggest that anti-drug policy in Colombia between 2001 and 2012 has had some success with a significant decrease in overall levels of coca cultivation, but that it has also led to the displacement of coca cultivation, notably to areas within the Colombian Pacific region. Negative impacts include continued deforestation and damage to ecosystems, and the further marginalization of Afro-Colombian communities whose collective territories have been subject to increased coca cultivation between 2001 and 2012. Alternative development programs have not been well aligned with such areas where other illegal activities such as mining as well as coca cultivation now occur. Hence the importance of designing anti-drug policy that comprehensively integrates the local nuances of those peoples and places affected by coca cultivation and crop eradication according to their particular contexts., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Highlights: [•] This paper addresses the regional socio-ecological factors behind illegal coca expansion. [•] Expansion of coca crops has produced a process of deforestation affecting humid tropical forest. [•] Between 2001 and 2008 the coca crops were displaced to the Pacific, the Caribbean and northern area of the Andean region. [•] There are no variables that can be considered to be exclusively associated with the coca-growing areas. [•] There is a set of common factors that are characteristic of the coca growing areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Coca plantations are the largest illegal agribusiness in the world, and Colombia is the world’s leading coca producer. Since 1994, the Colombian state, with the aid of the US, has waged a war on drugs based on air fumigation of coca plantations. This article evaluates the social and environmental impacts of this policy. We construct and analyse statistically for the first time a spatial database with social, economic, environmental, coca production and fumigation data for all 1125 municipalities of Colombia for the period 2001–2008. We complement statistical analysis with in situ observations and secondary literature review. We find that even if the questionable government claims that overall extent of coca plantations has been reduced were to be true, still coca activity has been diffused in the territory, with devastating environmental and social consequences. Biodiversity hotspot areas are being deforested, and local populations, especially Afro-Colombian communities, are being displaced from their territories. Our statistical analysis provides quantitative evidence to back up previous claims based on victims’ experience, single case-studies and ethnographic observation. We question the effectiveness of the fumigation policy and suggest that what is actually eradicated by the war on drugs is not coca, but humans and the forest. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article addresses the expansion of illicit crops (coca) and the associated socio-institutional and geographical drivers in Colombia between 2001 and 2008. The analysis is based on a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) models and shows that the relationships between the analyzed variables and the coca crops are not constant over space. Similarly, it is demonstrated that the factors commonly associated with the expansion of coca crops are not constant with respect to time, as changes can be seen between the years of the study (2001 and 2008). The article finds that the models that include the local reality offer the best way of understanding the factors associated with the expansion of illicit coca crops in Colombia, a fundamental step in the formulation of effective policies in the reduction of crops for illicit use (coca). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]