Columbian Deforestation

Coca plants which are used to make cocaine are becoming more and more farmed across the rain forests of Columbia, leading to a rise in deforestation. Farmers are cutting down trees for not only the coca plants, but also for food next to those coca plants. Due to an increase in demand for cocaine in the past few years, farmers have had to increase production and that includes cutting down the forest for more coca plants. This poses a threat to the animals which live in the rain forests and to rain forests itself.
The deforestation that is occurring can lead to many biological bad things to come as we learned in both lecture and lab this semester as well as last. As farmers cut down more trees they are destroying animal and plant habitats. Plants and trees are being destroyed which are very important not only to humans but to the animals that inhabited those areas. Many natural medications can be found in the rain forest and removes the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The animals that are pushed away from their homes are now forced to try to relocate. The problem with this is that many other places are already inhabited and threaten all other animals that try to live in their location. These animals now have nowhere to live and become easy targets for potential predators. Now these animals have no place to live or hide and they have to try to survive in the wild. These are the beginning stages of how a species may become extinct.  
This article showed a little bias against the coca farmers. It is a bad thing to happen but the farmers need to make their living as well. The fact that 95% of all cocaine comes from Columbia doesn’t help the situation either. If so much comes from Columbia then so much must be farmed which leads to the deforestation. It is a shame that rain forests are being destroyed and animals are being forced out of their home and on the brink of becoming extinct all for an illegal drug, for the United States anyway. This is sort of a reality... [continues]

Read full essay