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Figure 17. Internal rate of return compared coca with other crops. Ananás =
pineapple, Caucho = rubber, Maíz = maize, Yuca = cassava, dulce = sweet, amargo = bitter. Source: SINCHI 1999 in Gonzales Posso 2000
Figure 18. Coca cultivation in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. Source: UNODC 2007,
cited in UNEP et al. 2009 Previous research in the Colombian Amazon has shown that coca plantations, while
considered a highly profitable rural activity in many parts of the region, have severely impacted food security of the population living where the crop is cultivated.
Indigenous populations have started to switch to canned food instead of eating fish and cultivating crops, since cultivation of coca can become more profitable.
Likewise, this phenomenon was also caused by the colonization of Amazonian territories with raspachines “coca leaf pickers”, who arrived in the late 1970s in
the region and imposed different, western-based consumption patterns. They “lack a farming culture and import from cities of the interior and often from neighbor
countries a large part of the food they consume and at high prices” Gonzales Posso, 2000. Moreover, coca cultivation has also impacted people’s health, due to the
contamination of rivers with pesticides and herbicides used in order to increase profits from coca plantations Gonzales Posso, 2000.
6.1.4. Deforestation for infrastructure development
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Infrastructure development has often been linked with changes in land use mainly deforestation, while increasing connectivity between regions and facilitating
transportations of goods and people. Although the direct links between road construction and development and food security have not been explicitly explored in
the Amazon context, one can assume that increased food access via infrastructure is one important factor that can contribute to people’s food security, given that food
transportation via rivers is slower and also dependent on seasons. However, this has not only important positive social and economic implications encouraging
economic development, access to markets, increasing human wellbeing and social cohesion, but also brings about negative environmental impacts e.g. deforestation
and biodiversity loss. Several infrastructure projects e.g. road or dams are being developed in the
Amazon region or close to the Amazon region. A recent study analyzed the impact of deforestation of five road infrastructure projects
7
: 1 the Santa Cruz-Puerto Suarez Corridor in Bolivia; 2 the BR-364 Highway in Brazil; 3 the Pan-American
Highway section in Darien, Panama; 4 the Trans-Chaco Highway in Paraguay; and 5 the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure in South
America IIRSA Integration Corridor in Peru. Impacts are both direct and indirect. A road makes a different “footprint” depending on the ecosystem in the Andes,
deforestation occurs at less than 10km from the road, in the Amazon at an average of 50 km, and in the Chaco region at more than 50 km from the road.
The study revealed that roads have been an important driver of deforestation and land-use change in the region See Appendix 1-2. In Brazil for instance,
deforestation rates increased 40 to 70 after the completion of the BR-364 Highway, which is divided into two main sections – S1 in the State of Acre and S2
in the State of Rondonia where most of deforestation was concentrated. Both departments are in the Amazon basin. Likewise, in Peru most of deforestation
occurred in the Departments located in the Amazon Amazonas, Loreto, Madre de Dios, San Martin, and Ucayali. It was associated not only with agricultural
expansion MINAM Peru, 2009, but also with the construction of the IIRSA corridor that facilitated human settlement and encouraged the cutting of forests
Reymondin et al., 2013. According to the same study, deforestation occurred in a buffer zone of 10 km around the road.
7
For more information about the Project, see IDB website: http:www.iadb.orgenpublicationspublication-
detail,7101.html?id=70018.UkM3wBCWlrV
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The Government of Colombia has designed several initiatives for the development of road infrastructure in the Amazon, including “Programa corredores arteriales
complementarios de competitividad” “Complementary Arterial Corridors for Competitiveness Program in English, which involves the construction of seven
corridors in the Colombian Amazon in order to improve the accessibility conditions of the municipalities where agricultural output is the economic mainstay.
Additionally, the government is planning some infrastructure projects in the border areas between Ecuador and Peru, with a view to improve the access, transport of
cargo and passengers and finally contribute to better integration and regional development Fundación Alisios, 2011. It has not been evaluated; however, whether
the construction or improvement of all the roads mentioned above has had any effects on food security in the region. One can assume that access to food is likely to
have improved, indicating once more the trade-offs between environmental conservation and social and economic development.
6.2. Climate Change
