Addressing Socio-Environmental Challenges and Unintended Consequences of Peruvian Drug Policy: An Analysis in Two Former Cocalero Valleys

For decades, international governments and the Peruvian state have worked to reduce illicit coca cultivation in valleys that were once among the largest global producers of coca. The principal strategies used in these interventions are drug crop eradication and alternative development (AD), both of which have been operating for over forty years in Peru. These interventions have decreased illicit coca cultivation in targeted areas and increased the number of farmers engaged in alternative crops. However, socio-environmental factors affect farmer’s experiences of these interventions at a micro level, sometimes causing unintended negative consequences. Drawing on qualitative research in the Upper Huallaga and Monzon Valleys, this article details the mechanisms through which socio-environmental vulnerabilities shaped how coca eradication and AD policies are experienced by current and former cocalero farmers. We argue that long-term coca eradication and AD policies in both valleys reproduced social and environmental precarities. In particular, we found that: participation in AD programs was commonly more attainable for farmers who had relatively higher access to resources; successful alternative crop cultivation was often limited by socio-environmental conditions; and ongoing coca eradication continued to push marginalized coca growers into more precarious positions, often leading them to replant coca in more distant forests. For these reasons, illicit coca cultivation continued, albeit at a lower scale and under greater challenges for farmers, alongside attempts to combat it. We conclude the article by discussing these findings in the context of recent scholarship and ongoing supply-side drug policies that claim to support social equity and environmental well-being.