Global Forum of Producers of Crops Declared to be Illicit

Towards the first Global Forum of Producers Of Crops Declared to be Illicit

The International Promotion Committee of the Forum was founded in the city of Valencia, Spain, at the end of March 2007.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

Heroin, cocaine and cannabis, the most widely known illegal drugs causing concern to the international community, are all produced from plants: the opium poppy for heroin, the coca bush for cocaine and cannabis for marihuana or hashish. Peasant communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America are the main producers of these crops, which occupy considerable areas of land. According to the latest figures published by the UN, in 2005 the illicit cultivation of opium poppy covered more than 150,000 hectares, mainly in Asia, an estimated 100,000 of which were in Afghanistan. The coca leaf extended over an estimated 160,000 hectares in three Andean countries (Bolivia, Colombia and Peru), half of which could be found in Colombia alone. On cannabis, without any doubt the most widely cultivated illicit crop, UN figures for 2004/2005 haphazardly point to 230,000 hectares worldwide, with Morocco alone accounting for about 72,000 hectares (134,000 hectares in 2003). On a global scale, and for decades now, millions of people are sustained or survive on the basis of the agricultural production of these “drug plants”, even though they earn the smallest share of the revenue from the international drug trafficking chain.

These “criminalised peasants” cannot be viewed as a marginal and passing phenomenon. They form an integral part of 21st century reality and their existence results from permanent global problems. The nature of this particular agricultural activity could not be more paradoxical: illicit drugs are, more than any other product, a global economy, although their cultivation results from local configurations that, while differing in degree, combine to a remarkable extent geographical isolation (especially in mountain regions), social isolation, political violence and economic underdevelopment.

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

According to the international conventions on drugs, the agricultural production of these plants is restricted to medicinal and scientific purposes. As a consequence, states never guarantee human rights for the peasants that grow these crops not destined to such use. Poor and defenceless, these peasants are among the most unprotected members of this global economy, so much so that in many cases they are subjected to the rule of irregular armed groups and/or corrupt officials. Moreover, they are often stigmatised as criminals by authorities and society as a whole.

Subordinated amongst the subordinated, these “gardeners of artificial paradises” organise in order to claim their rights, like respect for cultural uses and licit by-products. The majority of them do not reach the same level of approval that has been achieved by the Bolivian coca peasant organisations. Their protests are often paid for with blood.

Until now, the international community’s responses have not delivered their expected results: the elimination or significant and permanent reduction of illicit crops. The goals of Alternative Development programmes have, with a few exceptions, not been met. The “tough stance”, forced crop eradication, has not been effective either, and even has been denounced as counter-productive, leading to humanitarian disasters in several cases. Particularly in places where aerial spraying has been applied, notably in Colombia, environmental damage and human health problems have been inflicted. This failure is quantifiable: in almost fifteen years the agricultural output of source plant material for illicit drugs production has multiplied.

The population involved in the growing of illicit plants are not consulted by the national and international decision-making bodies, and their voice is not taken into account when designing strategies – of which they are supposed to be “beneficiaries” - to find a way out of this dramatic situation. At the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the legislative entity of UN drugs control, these voices are hardly ever considered. There are few countries where trade unions of illicit crop producers exist, although in one exceptional case (Bolivia) a peasant leader of the “cocaleros” was elected president. Some relations have been developed amongst these trade unions in the Andes, but they have no contact whatsoever with those peasant communities who grow poppy and cannabis in other continents. In most cases these communities are isolated, dispersed, and marginalised.

2008 is the target date agreed at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) for tackling the world drug problem. In 1998, the world community decided to eliminate or significantly reduce all illicit crops within a period of ten years. This will be a moment to draw up a balance sheet of the actions undertaken, and define new future strategies in response to this. The population involved in the cultivation of illicit plants for drugs should have an important role in this process.

OBJECTIVES OF THE FORUM

The First Global Forum of Producers of Crops Declared to be Illicit, which is proposed to be held at the end of February 2008, would like to assist the concerned farmers in:

Exchanging and informing each other and the outside world about the political and economic problems pushing their communities towards this type of agriculture.
Tackling the questions surrounding their future: equal and sustainable development of their rural and territorial economies, agrarian reforms, alternative development and the development of licit uses of these plants (medicinal, cultural and nutritional).
Generate proposals of different policies to be presented to official decision-making bodies.
Facilitate and connect associations and networks capable of discussing with authorities and national, regional and international bodies as actors of their own development.

The First Global Forum of Producers of Crops Declared to be Illicit intends to gather farmers that are affected by current policies. We are aware of the fact that the legal status of their activity is a limitation, so presence of other actors involved in the context of the local rural economy is needed. Local or international development agencies, community representatives, experts and researchers are also invited to share their insights and present their points of view.

The conclusions and recommendations of this First Global Forum will have to be taken into account when governments and the international community design new political strategies. Beyond the false premise that by attacking poor farmers the global drug problem will be solved, policies must preserve people’s right to maintain their livelihoods in a sustainable way.

The International Promotion Committee of this First Global Forum of Producers of Crops Declared to be Illicit (FMPCDI) want to call on international organisations, associations and trade unions, governments and civil society in general, to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation of affected populations by supporting this initiative.

Valencia, Spain, 31st March, 2007