cocaine trade is damaging not only to human health, but to fragile ecosystems and communities in Colombia

A new collection of photographs is showing how the cocaine trade is damaging not only to human health, but to fragile ecosystems and communities in Colombia. The exhibition, which is running as part of National Tackling Drugs Week in the UK, was created by Shared Responsibility, a Colombian initiative to highlight what it calls the “ecocide” of the country’s drugs trade. It is on display in Trafalgar Square on May 21


Colombia is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, with ecosystems ranging from tropical rainforest through to grassland and alpine terrain


Around 35% of Colombia is covered by the Amazon jungle, which produces 15% of the world's oxygen


Shared Responsibility says that 2.2m hectares of the Colombian Amazon forest has been cleared to grow coca in 20 years. It is estimated that it will take between 100 and 600 years for just 1 hectare to recover


However it is not just plants and animals that are harmed by the impact of the cocaine trade; it is claimed that many indigenous people are forced by illegally armed groups to grow coca in their ancestral territories in order to produce cocaine


Land mines are often laid in the plantations to defend the crops, threatening civilians and those whose job is to close down coca plantations