Life cycle assessment and socioeconomic evaluation of the illicit crop substitution policy in Colombia

Abstract

The peace treaty of Colombia contemplates a crop substitution policy seeking to replace coca crops with legal alternatives. Although crop substitution diverts funding of illegal activities and provides an income to farmers, it is important to understand how the change to a variety of legal crops (coffee, sugarcane, and cacao) affects the income of farmers, and whether there is an environmental advantage of a crop over another. This study applies life cycle assessment (LCA) coupled with socioeconomic indicators to two regions, Putumayo and Catatumbo, over different policy scenarios. LCA results show that a policy success does not ensure a lower environmental impact across the board. Legal crops consume less fuel than coca crops, which reduce fuel‐related impacts, but the use of fertilizer in coffee and pesticide use in sugarcane increase toxicity‐related impacts. The results, however, are affected by a lack of characterization factors of agrochemicals, but once these are replaced by proxies, coca crops appear to have greater toxicity impacts. In terms of individual crops, cacao crops have a lower environmental impact than coffee and sugarcane, but it also takes the longest to harvest, which may pose a financial risk to farmers. The socioeconomic analysis reveals that for Catatumbo farmers, a policy success reduces the income, whereas for Putumayo farmers, a policy success increases income and job generation. In general, it was observed that the dynamics of the illegal supply chain vary for each region, influencing the environmental and socioeconomic outcome of the substitution policy.

A step towards sustainability: Life cycle assessment of coffee produced in the indigenous community of Ocotepec, Chiapas, Mexico

“…Based on this assumption, it was observed that in the study carried out by Barrera-Ramírez et al [41] in the Catatumbo region of Colombia; the most signi cant impacts resulted in the categories of eutrophication, climate change, and acidi cation, coinciding with the present analysis in the categories of terrestrial acidi cation, marine and freshwater eutrophication with the second-highest values after water consumption.…”

“…On the other hand, some investigations were identi ed, such as those carried out by Acosta-Alba et al [39]; Birkenberg and Birner [28]; Brenes-Peralta et al [40]; Barrera-Ramírez et al [41] and Giraldi-Díaz et al, [42] where they apply LCA in regions of Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico, including a production analysis approach based on local consumption or small producers that may or may not export or be consumed in the country of origin.…”

Parasites Circulating in Wild Synanthropic Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris): A One Health Approach

“…Accordingly, the Orinoco River constitutes a huge tropical watershed with extensive wetlands, marshes, and lakes nourished by the fourth largest river in the world. Unfortunately, this diverse and unique ecosystem has suffered dramatic anthropogenic changes during the last decades because of legal and illegal agroindustrial crop development [ 7 ], the expansion of the agricultural frontier due to livestock, illegal mining, logging [ 8 ], hunting [ 6 ], and wildlife trafficking [ 9 ]. Thus, free-ranging capybaras distributed in the human-altered Orinoco Basin are constantly interacting with a plethora of endemic wildlife species, humans, and domestic animals such as horses ( Equus caballus ), cattle ( Bos taurus indicus ), chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus ), dogs ( Canis familiaris ), and cats ( Felis catus ).…”

Geographic distribution, conservation, and genomic resources of cacao Theobroma cacao L

“…Similarly, both agroforestry reforestation and deforestation were linked to cacao farming in specific areas of Peru and Nicaragua (Orozco‐Aguilar et al., 2021). Cacao farming was not associated with deforestation in Colombia but rather opposite—with agroforestry reforestation, which actually is an attractive alternative to illicit crops (Abbott et al., 2018; Barrera‐Ramírez et al., 2019; Castro‐Nunez et al., 2020; Hernández‐Núñez et al., 2022).…”