Data from: Deforestation and coca cultivation rooted in twentieth-century development projects

Most of the world's coca—the source of cocaine—is grown in the Amazonian forests of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. As cultivation continues despite eradication, a shift to giving farmers more incentives to abandon coca is currently proposed. Assuming coca cultivation is an important cause of migration and deforestation, new alternative development projects also aim to conserve forests. We show coca cultivation strongly increases near never-completed 1960s–1970s state-sponsored projects to settle the Amazon. Improved roads and colonization projects opened the western Amazon frontier to migration, generating deforestation and, once support dwindled, setting the stage for coca cultivation. New studies also show coca cultivation generates negligible direct or indirect forest loss and fails to explain migration, whereas expanding legal agriculture, roads, displacement, and eradication increase deforestation. These findings highlight the urgent need to both commit development investment for the long term and set explicit conservation goals in western Amazonia.全球范围内用于制取可卡因的古柯，绝大多数种植于哥伦比亚、秘鲁与玻利维亚的亚马逊森林区域。尽管已开展古柯种植铲除行动，但种植规模仍持续扩张，当前学界已提出转向为农户提供更多激励措施，以促使其放弃古柯种植的解决方案。此前学界曾将古柯种植视为人口迁移与森林砍伐的重要动因，而新推出的替代发展项目亦旨在保护森林。本研究表明，古柯种植规模在1960至70年代未完工的国家主导亚马逊定居项目周边出现了显著扩张。升级后的道路与拓殖项目将西部亚马逊开发前沿地带向移民开放，引发了森林砍伐；而当项目支持力度缩减后，该区域则为古柯种植的兴起埋下了伏笔。后续新研究则显示，古柯种植造成的直接与间接森林损失微乎其微，且无法解释人口迁移现象；反之，合法农业扩张、道路建设、人口流离失所以及古柯铲除行动，反而加剧了森林砍伐。上述研究结果凸显出在西部亚马逊地区，既要长期投入发展资金，又需设立明确的森林保护目标的迫切性。