BACKGROUND 

The Coca Paper is a social business proposal by María Mercedes Moreno of Mama Coca. MamaCoca is a French Law 1901 Human Rights Defense Association, founded in 1998, online www.mamacoca.org in 2001, and legally constituted in 2003. This research on alternative and traditional uses of the coca leaf started in 2003 in support of the Coca Law Bill.  In support of this peace initiative, María Mercedes Moreno began researching on the practical means to eradicate extensive coca plantings without recurring to chemical spraying; the means to protect Colombia’s environmental and commercial future by stemming the extensive use of chemicals in Colombian agriculture, particularly coca; and the means to incentivize the diversified growing of plants which can be used together with, and as future alternatives to, coca to make a product which would allow us to eradicate the 62,000 hectares (estimates for December 2010) of coca which are used to produce cocaine and wreak havoc on the Colombian economy and environment.  

The coca-leaf product found to be the most feasible alternative was paper. MamaCoca has been producing paper products on a very small scale for the past 5 years on an experimental basis. A few Colombian craftsmen and school children in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and children with special needs in the Cauca, such as those of FEDAR in the Cauca Department have been cooperating with us on this mission by producing as per our commands and selling us their products at the prices that they themselves have fixed. The products we are just now starting to offer are basically the means we have chosen to make known and help promote our productive proposal. These are simple silver jewelry pieces made with a small coca-leaf charm and coca-paper products offered in exchange for donations which should hopefully allow mamacoca to pursue its mission. 

We have come to realize that in order to achieve the large-scale coca productive eradication we are proposing, we need a niche in the market that can absorb large amounts of the product and the guaranteed sales continuity required to achieve the definitive eradication chemical coca.  Clearly, we need to be able to work hand-in-hand through the assistance and cooperation of established paper-producing companies and specialized international agencies, if we are to build a feasible non-chemical paper and pulp business to aid the Colombian government and international anti-narcotics agencies in their goal to control drug production in Colombia.    The assessment of global consumer trends has led us to understand that the growing demand for paper packaging materials would make an excellent outlet for the large amounts of existing coca leaf which would be mechanically and/or biologically (less competitive but environmentally-friendly and more efficient use of the renewable source plants) processed together with other plant fiber sources to make paper bags, boxes, pulp for newspapers and other paper products. According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., the global paper packaging materials market is expected to reach 223.9 million metric tons by 2015

Considering the large varied amount of plant-fiber sources native to Colombia, this productive project could be a wide-scope and long-term commercially as well as environmentally promising venture for Colombia in addition to fulfilling its main purpose, which is to counter the drug trade and provide Colombian farmers with sound and sustainable livelihood alternatives to coca production and processing.  Coca-leaf cardboard is not only light-weight but it is also cushioned and thus tapered to shipping needs.

 MamaCoca Coop’s role in this process is to continue researching into alternatives to stem coca-for-cocaine growing by contributing to articulating the research and funding required to attain promises to purchase (letters of intent) and investment proposals for the small-scale experimental productive project with a view to investment and/or loans for the wide-scope productive nation-wide venture. There is however no doubt that paper packaging is an excellent solution for eradicating coca.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION 

The Coca Paper is a sustainable, profitable and Human Rights-abiding formula for eliminating the dependency of Colombian peasants on growing coca-for-cocaine for a living. This productive project is proposed as a manual/mechanical, voluntary, mass and permanent eradication formula for the extensive coca currently grown for illicit purposes. The Coca Paper is proposed as a means to put an end to the intensive use of herbicides to grow and eradicate coca for cocaine. The principal goal of The Coca Paper is to achieve coca eradication through the production of coca-paper products and to make this one-time eradication permanent, by way of a nationwide large-scale organic paper and pulp production industry. The whole coca bush (roots and all) dealkylized (freed of its cocaine alkaloid) immediately after uprooting, will serve to start up the paper industry. This business proposal responds to appraisals by the UNODCP regarding the need to find sustainable eradication measures which include greater social justice support policies and measures for Colombian farmers.

The use of this coca to produce paper products will guarantee its manual/mechanical, voluntary, non-chemical and permanent eradication. Firstly, because, by using this coca (once and for all), coca peasants can be ensured immediate income, thus surmounting one of the main obstacles to successful voluntary and permanent eradication; namely, the time gap between the moment the peasant eradicates and the time he starts earning a substitute income. Secondly, this one-time use of the coca already planted would allow the International Community hopefully together with the Indigenous peoples, to effectively measure and control the amounts of coca leaf used and eradicated. This coca, once eradicated, will be substituted by other of the country’s many fiber-rich plants which can be used to make paper, paper pulp and varied paper products. One-time production volumes, plus these alternative crops which involve the peasants in the productive process, serve as proof of substitution of coca. Thirdly, using the country’s many fiber-rich plants (diverse genus and species, depending on the region), will not only serve to recover the seeds of biodiversity —lost to sole-crop policies and extensive cattle breeding tendencies—, but will also ensure the continuation and expansion of this organic-farming commercial venture.

The Coca Paper is an Alternative Development Project seeking to address the “drug” issue in Colombia from a global perspective:

1. Economic alternatives to empower and free coca and non-coca growing peasants from the control of the diverse armed groups which occupy their territories.

2. The studies and knowledge needed to take Colombia beyond its conditioning by the narcotics traffic.

3. The programs needed to address drug-use issues in Colombia

RATIONALE

The millions of gallons of herbicides used on and against coca in Colombia are destroying Colombians’ health, the nation’s privileged mega-diversity and the country’s agricultural future. The extensive growing and intensive aerial spraying of coca have generated, and still cause, an unending scope of health, social, environmental, political and economic hazards. Chemically grown, destined and fumigated coca constitutes one of the most serious obstacles to peace in Colombia. Firstly, because it fuels and finances the war system economy and, secondly, but not lastly, because the coca economy is still the most resorted to livelihood of Colombian agriculture and peasant communities.

The adverse health effects of the potent chemical mixtures used for eradicating coca through aerial spraying; of the agrochemicals used to cultivate coca-for-cocaine; and of the extremely dangerous precursors (bleach, drain cleaner, sulfuric acid, gasoline, cement...) being used to process the coca leaf, bring heartbreaking health, environmental and humanitarian considerations to bear on the “drug” issue and are reason enough to advocate for prompt, voluntary and permanent eradication of the extensive coca-for-cocaine cultivated in Colombia. In 1962, there were less than 1,000 hectares of coca in Colombia. According to a 1961 census, “there are 936 coca-bush growers, who cultivate about 617 hectares consisting of 500,000 bushes; the annual production is approximately 143,650 kg, representing a value (at the rate of about 4 pesos per kg) of approximately 600,000 Colombian pesos.” [INCB, 1961]

Unwilling to admit defeat and face the resiliency of nature and the moving force of poverty, fumigation has been the pat answer since 1978, and Colombia has been the only country willing to sacrifice its people to chemical experimentation. Today, after millions of liters of herbicides bombed from the air and millions of hectares “eradicated”, there are approximately 100,000 hectares of coca planted to be used for processing into cocaine, in Colombia alone. And, according to a study carried out in 2005 by the National Antinarcotics Directorate (DNE, in its Spanish acronym) and the UNODCP, in Colombia, 340,000 people are dedicated to growing coca. These 68,600 families provide the 244,000 metric tons of dry leaf required to produce 640 tons of cocaine exported by Colombia which, according these same agencies, represented in 2005 70%  and for 2011 95% of the cocaine consumed by the 13,000,000 cocaine consumers worldwide. These studies estimated that the annual income of coca growers in Colombia is approximately US $2,700, little above the average national income which is USD $2,500. In 2004, coca leaf was priced at somewhere from US $0.4/Kg to US $ 1.8/Kg. The amount of coca bushes grown can vary from 2,500 plants/has to 4,000 plants per hectare, and from 4 to 6 harvests per year depending on the variety and region. The cocaine market is estimated at approximately USD $71,000 million while the Colombian coca leaf market represents approximately USD $843 million per year, the equivalent of 6% of Colombian agricultural sector GDP. Comparatively, coffee represents 13.5% of agricultural GDP and involves near to a half a million families, mostly small growers.  In 2005, There were 86,000 has, an accumulated 139,400 has were fumigated plus 30,000 eradicated manually, there was a 25% reduction and, for 2006, there are 78,000 has and 213,371 “eradicated” ..172,000 fumigated..the rest ?? manually ….which means there should be no less than 150,000 ha. to “uproot” for the paper project. The kilo per hectare of coca-leaf yields varies from region to region from approximately 1000 kl/ha in the Pacific region to almost 2,000 kl/ha in the central region of Colombia. This would mean that, at an average of 1,500 kilos per ha, just in coca leaf (not counting the whole bush), we would have thousands of kilos of coca leaf readily available for pulp and paper products; thousands of chemical coca bushes to be replaced by other native fiber-rich plants for future production of pulp and paper products.

The INCB estimates that, for Colombia, 43.792 has were eradicated manually in 2010 while 101,939 has were sprayed with chemical mixtures. In 2008 there were an estimated 81,000 hectares of coca in Colombia; in 2009 69,000 has and over a 100,000 has were fumigated with the result that, in 2010, there were still over a 100,000 has  planted with coca for cocaine. Extensive planting of coca-for-cocaine, much like other monocultures (African oil palm trees, sugar cane, and banana plantations) leads to deforestation, lands dedicated to extensive cattle grazing and the need for intensive use of chemical herbicides for plants to prosper. [Elsa Nivia, Rapalmira y Ecofondo 2004.] The 2005 ONDCP/DNE study estimates “…that coca farmers used about 85,000 metric tons of fertilizers and herbicides in their coca fields in 2005, together with about 12 million liters of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. It was also interesting to note that 129,000 liters of Glyphosate and Round-up were sprayed by farmers on their coca fields, two herbicides used in the aerial spraying of coca cultivation. However farmers’ concentrations were probably lower than the concentration used for aerial spraying." [Colombian Coca Survey]

Monsanto’s Roundup is the most commonly known formulation of Glyphosate; Roundup is the Glyphosate most widely used in Colombia. Glyphosate is used to control weeds, not plants; and Coca leaves have waxy cuticles which retard herbicide uptake. Thus, up to 1% of the volume of the chemical mixture used for aerial spraying operations is an adjuvant called Cosmo-Flux 411. This surfactant makes the Glyphosate 4 times more potent, and corrosive, than the Roundup commonly used for agricultural purposes. In aerial eradication operations, this potent mixture is sprayed not only from higher altitudes than those recommended to avoid dangerous drift (in Colombia, what’s to be avoided are armed gunmen protecting coca) but, what’s more, the same field is also sprayed several times over. An average of 12 hectares is fumigated to eradicate just one hectare of coca. All to practically no avail since, often, irrigation and/or rain turns the Glyphosate used to eradicate into a fertilizer making coca bloom. Furthermore, Representatives from the DoS have indicated that, growers will prune the coca plants, immediately after spraying, in order to salvage the coca crop. Coca often escapes from fumigation; not so our children, staple food crops, livestock and water sources.

Glyphosate is said to damage the human plancental cells, digestive system, the liver and kidneys, the central nervous system, the lungs and the blood's red corpuscles. The World Health Organization has found that Glyphosate is easily transmitted to humans through vegetables such as carrots and other, and traces are to be found in the soil long after spraying. Glyphosate sets the breeding ground for the patogenous fungi Fusarium Oxysporum and, in 2007, coconut plantations in the Putumayo are said to have been almost totally lost due to the Fusarium. Politicians have even dared to suggest using biological weapons such as the Fusarium Oxysporum to eradicate coca and have started breeding the Eloria Noyesi, a butterfly which feeds off the coca, threatening to unbalance natural food chains and to infringe the region’s indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual rights.

We have been asked to believe that chemical spraying is harmless; it might be harder to unabashedly state that the Eloria Noyesi can distinguish indigenous coca from coca for cocaine. What we should take into consideration is the fact that the world would be a poorer place were rich biodiverse Colombian soil to become so saturated with Glyphosate that it would only be fit for planting genetically modified crops (Roundup Ready or Glyphosate full). Even the multi-billion dollar seed business stands to suffer from the loss of diversity and one of the issues with GMOs is that they do not produce their own seed, farmers have to buy these every two years. Additionally, GMOs are said to be less productive and contain less nutrients [Friends of the Earth, Who Benefits from GM Crops? 2008.]

Contradictory coca figures are also part of the issue, and attaining more precise estimates of coca cultivation would be a great step ahead and, consequently, one more good reason for promoting productive and incentivized eradication. In view of this disparity, estimates are that, while in 1999 the number of hectares of coca cultivated in Colombia ranged from 122,500 to 160,0000 and covered 12 Colombian departments, in 2006 from 78,000 to 157,000 hectares were planted in 23 of the country's 32 departments. This was so, notwithstanding the fact that in these six years almost 900,000 hectares were “eradicated” or, better said, sprayed. Aerial spraying of coca cultivation has remained above 130,000 hectares per year since 2002 and, as of 2001, the herbicide concentration used on coca is 10.4 liters per hectare. The UNODC 2004 World Drug Report estimates that by the end of 2003 there were 212,506 acres of coca under cultivation while the State Department reports that 323,400 acres were sprayed in 2004.

According to a 2001 study by the Colombian Solicitor General’s Office, (Comptroller’s Office), the fumigation of 272,377 hectares of coca from 1994 to 2000, cost approximately USD $113,062,582 and applying the required 711,761 gallons of Glyphosate (around 2.6 gallons/ha.) cost about USD $500 /ha. These costs have increased considerably over the years and they are now sky-high. In 2007, a kilogram of glyphosate (Chinese) cost USD $3, it now costs USD $14. [Reuters]. In 2005, an accumulated 139,400 hectares of coca were fumigated, to which end approximately 350,000 gallons of chemical mixture were probably indiscriminately sprayed over Colombia. In 2006, aerial spraying reached 172,025 hectares. Estimates are that, since 1978, over one million hectares of coca have been fumigated in Colombia (no records have been offered by the government). At 2.6 gallons per hectare, Colombia has swallowed over 2.500.000 million gallons of potent chemical mixtures over the past 30 years, solely on account of aerial eradication efforts. This figure does not include the millions of gallons of chemicals used to cultivate and process coca for cocaine.

According to the government, these two and a half million gallons of chemicals are but a mere 13% of the herbicides consumed by Colombia since “traditional” agriculture consumes 87% of these chemicals in Colombia. To better understand the issue, we could compare Colombia’s chemical history with that of China, a country which is currently facing serious soil toxicity problems. China has a large chemical industry; it has an area of 9,596,960 sq km 270,550 sq km of water and 1,306,313,812 million inhabitants and is a large consumer and mayor producer of Glyphosate and, since February 2007, China's glyphosate prices have been surging, from the average price of about RMB34,000/t in February to RMB42,000/t as of September 2007., As a result of Glyphosate, China’s agricultural exports are facing serious obstacles, and not precisely because of other flagrant human rights violations.  

This example  shows us that Colombia needs to permanently severe itself from its intensive use of chemicals and, as the 8,000 cocaleros who recently manifested in the Bajo Cauca indicated, the need and willingness to eradicate coca for cocaine is obvious. Eradication is, however, impossible without immediate and long-lasting financially feasible alternatives. Colombians, even those accused of ties to the narcotics traffickers (among others, Hernán Giraldo and some FARC leaders) have recognized the evident need to put a stop to Colombia’s chemical destruction. The question is how to pull out once and for all without deluding ourselves into believing that international funding and/or fixed-term loans can suffice to pull Colombian peasants out of the poverty and lack of incorporation into economic processes which leads them to plant, and now process, coca. Particularly, considering that fumigation often destroys the alternative projects funded to promote eradication; thus forcing peasants to return to the best cash crop in Colombia, coca.

Fumigation has displaced thousands of Colombian peasants from their homes and pushed coca plantings to primary-forested lands. Forced manual eradication, although less hazardous as far human health and the environment is concerned, poses greater security problems, is costly and does not solve the peasants' financial dilemma either. The Uribe Administration manually eradicated 30,000 has in 2005, 40,000 in 2006 and 50,000 in 2007. Satellite images seem to indicate that a good percentage of the coca forced and manually eradicated is soon replaced by new plants in the same areas.  

There are said [TV presentation by “Acción Social de la Presidencia February 2008] to be 60 mobile forced-manual eradication brigades made up of 28 eradicators, 1 boss (capataz) and two cooks and an accompanying police force (made up of #). These brigades are said to cover an average of 18 hectares per day and have, since 2008, been accompanied by international representatives to aid in estimating the coca-free areas. According to other government figures [in the Colombian press], the 1,800 men, who make up 50 of the 60 existing groups, manually eradicated 18,000 hectares in 8 months in 2008. Manual forced eradication has already cost the lives of both peasants involved in forced manual eradication operations and members of the security forces assigned to protect them. Some time later, the eradicating brigades come back to the same plot of land to manually fumigate with glyphosate to avoid what they call “la resiembra” or replanting. Peasants who work on the forced eradication groups are paid COP $25,000 (approx. USD $14) per day (there is no precise information regarding the number and costs of the accompanying police forces; transportation, food, board, medical services and other costs for these ‘government’ eradication employees and security forces.  The costs of aerial eradication are high as are extremely high the actual costs and security expenditures of manual eradication, The risks incurred and actual death of numerous manual eradicators since the  manual eradication program’s inception are a not-less important consideration and reason for finding other means to put a voluntary end to continued coca-for-cocaine planting.

Nonetheless, the main reason for finding the means to effectively, immediately and permanently eradicate coca-for-cocaine in Colombia continues to be the war and extreme violence Colombians have endured for decades. Daily, an average of 20 Colombians fall victim to the war. They die in this civil strife whose existence has not been recognized as it should be by International Bodies. Colombia’s drug-fueled war has made Colombia a risky neighbor; made delinquency rampant throughout the country. It has led to bloodthirsty massacres, excruciatingly dramatic kidnappings, to the death of hundreds of thousands of Colombians; the assassination of the best of its peasant and union leaders, academics, activists and youth. It has deepened the rift between the very rich and the very poor; increased social injustice and exclusion and promoted a counter-agrarian reform and despoliation which bodes for greater political instability. Almost 50% of the country’s richest agricultural lands are in the hands of narcotics traffickers. Colombia has never been anything other than a country of large landowners who, without the least compunction, have financed an armed counter-agrarian reform to strengthen their stranglehold over Colombia’s 1,138,910 sq km and 100,210 sq km of water. These 5,000 large landowners owned 32% of Colombia’s land in 1984; 45% in 1997 and 50% in 2002. According to the Office of the Comptroller General, by 2005, that is over a 20-year period, the Colombian narcotics traffic has accumulated 4.5 million hectares, valued at USD $2.500 million. Meanwhile, US funding on counternarcotics account for Colombia’s war, totaled $2.8 billion from FY2000 through FY2005 and, with FMF and DoD war investment in Colombia, the amount is USD $4.5 billion.  The Obama Administration has proposed a lower war assistance budget for Colombia; that which in the end really does not signify that the Drug War is any less rampant or important.

Colombia’s centuries-old war of exclusion, social injustice and horizontal political compromises between the elites of the warring parties has corrupted the nation’s institutions, distorted moral values, and ransomed our “unfinished” nation’s future. Poor sanitary conditions, rudimentary schools (when schools there are), lack of infrastructure (roads, communications…) and armed intimidation are the norm in the Colombian countryside, where almost 30% of Colombia’s 45 million inhabitants live. According to the 2006 UNODC survey, "more and more, peasants take part in the transformation process and produce cocaine paste and cocaine base." This highlights the urgency of pulling coca growers out of this dependency. Moreover, the feeling of exclusion expressed by non coca growers due to the preferential programs for coca farmers points to the need for national bonding processes, preferably productive processes. Under the Uribe narcotics-geared Administration, the Andean Amazon Region facied unprecedented escalating verbal conflict at the Executive level. Under the current Santo’s Administration, the region seems to be facing the need to propound for innovative narcotics policies and measures. The region’s political leaders are seeking paths to economic and social development, to peace and this is reason enough to support productive coca alternatives which strengthen the region’s social foothold and stewardship of it natural legacy.

WORKFORCE AND COMMODITY

The Coca Leaf has numerous health and nutritional virtues and benefits. It has been the AndeanAmazon Region’s indigenous peoples’ dietary supplement, medicine and spiritual vehicle for centuries. Nonetheless, coca coca cultivated to produce base /crack/and cocaine suffers an intense use of chemicals and cannot, therefore, be used to make foodstuff. Coca plants are woody perennial shrubs whichbelong to the genus Erythroxylum. The Erythroxylum comprises a good number of wild and cultivated species. Erythroxylum coca Lamarck and (Morris) Hieronymus - are cultivated over a wide area in that part of the world. Coca plants grow from seedlings to a harvestable plant in 12 to 18 months. The coca bushes grow to approximately 5 to 6 feet high and are harvested 4 to 6 times per year, depending on the region, by scraping off the leaves. Coca is part of the Andean Amazon Region’s natural, cultural, dietary and, most important of all, spiritual legacy. It has been so for centuries; scientists and chroniques date “findings” of Coca back thousands of years [Vásquez, Manuscrito Université de Nantes 2001.] The coca plant is native to Western South America. There are a considerable number of wild species of the genus but the species that provides the coca leaves for commerce of coca-for-cocaine is that which interests us here and whose growth is being promoted because of its productivity and resiliency.

The Coca Paper proposes that the odd 140,000 hectares of coca (an estimated 5,500,000 bushes, ??milions of kilos), which are being chemically-cultivated and used for criminalized purposes, be used only once, and once and for all, to put and end to extremely hazardous aerial eradication measures and to illegal coca planting by using this coca to get this productive project started. In order to comply with international legislation, the coca to be used could be subjected to a dealkylization process immediately after being harvested. It would give growers immediate access to a substitute income. Substitution of coca by other native plants rich in fiber and from which paper can be made is a further guarantee of eradication and of the recovery of these species which have been lost to extensive coca planting. This organic-farming commercial venture is also proposed as the means to respect and recover the sustainable use of organic coca as one of many valuable plants that make up the region’s biodiversity. The plants (estropajo, guadua, mango, and others, depending on the region species) used to substitute the coca eradicated serve to go on with and expand the productive process.

The greatest obstacle to eradicating coca does not seem so much the profitability of coca for peasant growers as much as the lack of alternatives for immediate substitute earnings and long term economic processes; starting with the guarantee of selling yearly harvests of alternative products and receiving appreciation for being a productive member of an inclusive nation. In accordance with Alternative Development perspectives adopted officially by UNGASS in 1998, eradication should be paired with sustainable rural development measures which require stabilization of coca-growing zones; measures should be expedient and developed within the framework of cooperation between “growing” and ”producing” countries.

The possibility of giving these 100,000 hectares of coca a one-time transitory legal use with the aim of eradicating and substituting coca used for illicit purposes, responds to the need to find a balance between the search for peace in coca growing territories and the need to satisfy eradication objectives. Implementing the basic principles of Alternative Development varies from one region to another depending, among others, on the local conditions and possibilities. Production with coca for eradication purposes, answers, among others, to the need to speed up the current demobilization (disarming) of paramilitary and insurgent guerrilla groups with the aim of dismantling Colombia’s war economy system and its extremely severe regional and international repercussions.

In accordance with the need for manual/mechanical, voluntary, mass and permanent eradication of coca and with Alternative Development proposal promoted and funded by the European Community, MamaCoca South/North Cooperation will contribute to the sale and export of coca-paper products. We propose producing the paper products not solely from the coca leaf but from the whole plant. The whole plant would be uprooted, paid according to its weight (root, stem and leaves) and immediately exchanged for the region’s native seeds of those plants from which paper can be produced and whose harvest the project solemnly agrees to buy to continue the productive process and guarantee permanent substitution. The coca bush would be bought at a price estimated on the basis of the 4 to 6 yearly harvests corresponding to the one-time purchase for the sole year for which the transitory legal status is granted. This purchase will be complemented by the seed which will be given to the farmer which will thus his cash crop for making paper; the farmer’s alternatives and long-term source of income.

Mama Coca has been working to produce handcrafted coca-paper cards, envelopes and paper in order to promote the need and usefulness of The Coca Paper business venture and we require your support in order to make this alternative come through. We are here requesting your help for our cause and would like to send you our coca cards and/or MamaCoca T-shirts and other products so that you might help us to make our proposal known.

This social-business proposal comprises three aspects or work areas:

1. PRODUCTION: Reconverting peasant coca crops and growers to legal productive alternatives and integrating the indigenous communities with a coca culture to self-determined productive processes /with or without coca foodstuff production-

2. RESEARCH: Carrying out scientific studies and analyses on the coca bush and leaf; on the narcotics economy and measures against coca and the costs and benefits of these measures and alternatives. Additionally, studies which can allow us to determine the extent of “drug” consumption in Colombia in order to design programs for resocializing consumers facing difficulties with drugs and reconverting antinarcotics agencies to peace and social purposes and programs.

3. WORKSHOPS: a-training programs in Harm Reduction concepts and practice for government personnel dealing with recreational and compulsive drug users; b -Human Rights and environmental workshops for peasant coca growers; c—think-tank sessions with specialists to design strategies and programs to provide job opportunities (prior guarantees of non-incrimination and “retirement”) for raspachines (coca leaf "scrapers" /harvesters) and jibaros (small time dealers.)

GOALS:

Economic alternatives

Studies

Programs to address drug-use issues in Colombia, Harm Reduction

1. The Coca Paper is a social productive process which seeks to provide the long-lasting financial means for Colombian farmers to attain social and political autonomy through the large-scale production, marketing and export of paper, handicrafts and other environmentally-friendly products in accordance with the standards of Green Markets and Fair Trade. Paper production with coca guarantees eradication and immediate income substitution for peasant growers; reduces the risks and costs of forced eradication and responds to the need to respect International Human Rights and Environmental Conventions. It furthermore allows antinarcotic authorities to gauge more precisely the true extent of coca cultivation in situ and thus design measures and policies for more humane and effective drug-control efforts.

2. It is a long-term commercial venture seeking to promote native biodiversity through the recovery of the seed which are being lost as large scale coca growing and fumigation have swept and devastated the Colombian countryside. More particularly, it seeks the recovery of the seed of those fiber-rich plants which can be used to make paper, pulp and paper products and allow us to substitute the coca eradicated in order to consolidate the long term productive process of a national pulp and paper industry.

3. It is a productive project which should contribute to raising awareness regarding the contradiction posed by the International Community’s environmental mission for Colombia and antinarcotic policies and measures which are at the root of the greatest hazards to the country’s natural legacy. This increased awareness should allow Colombia itself to understand the difference between coca and cocaine, and all that this implies insofar as natural and common-law rights and duties.

4. It seeks, through paper products made out of organic fibers from native plants (mango, corozo, guadua, estropajo), to contribute to promoting peace alternatives by incorporating the Colombian peasantry into international Green and Clean Markets to help free them from the bondage of war. 

NEEDS OF THE PROJECT:

Transparency

Knowledge regarding the sanitary, humanitarian and environmental effects of chemical cultivation and eradication of coca has served to change the general public’s views regarding the added repercussions of the cocaine issue and to advocate with environmentalists, chemical-sensitivity experts, health authorities and people not directly concerned with the "drug" issue regarding the need to eradicate and find alternatives.

.....Marzo 2012: Dionisio Núñez (Viceministro de la Coca Bolivia): Proyectan usar hoja de coca en comida para pez, cartón y papel  “El Gobierno, a través de la Dirección General de Control de Coca e Industrialización (Digcoin), proyecta elaborar alimento para peces, cartón y papel a base de coca ilegal que fue decomisada en operativos realizados en los últimos años [marzo 2012]