Failed US ‘war on drugs’ endangers bird habitats in Central America, study warns

Every year, between November and February, the golden-cheeked warbler travels from the U.S. state of Texas to Central America. But while it is searching for a winter refuge, this small, endangered bird, Setophaga chrysopariaWith its bright yellow cheeks and buzzing song, it seems unable to escape habitat loss. More than 90% of the golden-cheeked warbler population winters in a region at increased risk of deforestation, experts warn.

It’s not the only one. Dozens of migratory and native forest birds in Central America could see two-thirds of their habitats threatened by the encroaching drug trade that’s driving deforestation, according to recently published research. More than half of the migratory bird species analyzed had more than a quarter of their global populations in landscapes that have become more vulnerable to drug-related deforestation in Central America. And that’s just for migratory birds that breed in North America, the study authors say.

They found that counter-drug policies can push drug trafficking into more remote forest areas, many of which are important bird landscapes. Some of the areas that have become more vulnerable as a result are in the Five Great Forests of Central America: the Maya Forest in Guatemala, the Indio-Maiz in Nicaragua, the Tortuguero in Costa Rica and the Moskitia in Honduras. The study found that since 1970, deforestation had reduced half of the populations of native and migratory birds in the affected areas.

“The extent to which we found that the most important areas for these forest-dwelling and migratory species overlapped with areas more affected by deforestation due to drug trafficking was greater than we expected,” said Amanda Rodewald, lead author of the study and senior director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the US.

“Two-thirds is quite large. And I think the biggest surprise was how much of the global population of some of these migratory species is or is concentrated in areas that are increasingly vulnerable,” Rodewald told Mongabay. “When you see one in five species seeing half of their global population affected, we can expect serious population impacts.”

Research shows that Central America’s role in the illegal drug trade has changed over the years. From a transit area for cocaine from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia bound for the US, it is now a starting point for drug trafficking to Europe.

Study co-author Steven Sesnie, a researcher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was the lead author of a 2017 study on cocaine trafficking and forest loss in the region. It was estimated that drug trafficking could be responsible for 15-30% of forest loss in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, with 30-60% of forest loss occurring in protected areas. That earlier study was the first to examine the impact of drug trafficking on birds in the region.

“Traffickers have started focusing on Central America. Most of the drugs going to North America go through Central America,” Sesnie told Mongabay.

He added that drug traffickers are moving deeper into the rainforests of Central America because of anti-drug policies, but also because clearing forests for agricultural land that they can sell is a way to launder drug money. This laundering operation and the creation of new trafficking routes have an irreversible impact on the flora and fauna, Sesnie said. “The only way to stop this is to look at the environment when you tackle drug trafficking.”

To track which key bird landscapes are being exposed to what researchers call narco-deforestation, the new study used satellite images of deforestation in Central America, combined with modeling techniques to estimate how drug cartels are expanding their territories under pressure from counter-drug policies, and then compared that data to populations of native and migratory birds in the region. The researchers also dug into the U.S. government’s Consolidated Counterdrug Database to get a better picture of how the drug trade operates in the region.

Anti-drug policies can negatively impact biodiversity and communities

According to Rodewald, much of Central American drug policy is driven by or borrowed from the United States. “U.S. drug policy is very supply-side oriented,” she said. That puts law enforcement’s focus on catching the traffickers, “without taking into account the whole range of social processes that are causing the problem. They break it down, and the problem goes somewhere else.”

“Narcos are not the problem,” said study co-author Kendra McSweeney, a geographer at Ohio State University. “Our argument is that drug policy creates narcos and keeps them moving.”

The way US authorities are trying to crack down on drug trafficking in Central America, historically their “backyard,” is counterproductive, she told Mongabay, adding that the “war on drugs” has been a disaster.

“Stop pouring billions of dollars into supply-side efforts to stop the flow of drugs. They’re making the problem worse. Stop wiping out the plantations. Stop trying to intercept the boats. Stop funding the military. Stand down,” McSweeney said. “In fact, stop pursuing U.S. policy in Central America.”

She says the long-standing US model of preventing drugs from entering communities is having a huge impact on the region. “Use the money to invest in things that keep Central Americans at home. Don’t give the money to the military, give it to civil society. To protect forests, to invest in education.”

“We’ve spoken to the U.N. General Assembly, to three U.N. drug policy offices,” McSweeney said. “I’ve given presentations to the military, to drug agencies. I’ve spoken to virtually everyone in the State Department. They never disagree, they’re very responsive. But they seem to think that continuing the war on drugs as they’ve done for the last 50 years is going to magically change things. Yet they lack the imagination for alternatives.”

The study also found a link between drug trafficking, deforestation and the loss of native habitats in Central America.

“When smugglers come into an area, they build roads, airstrips and fields,” Rodewald said. “We’re also really trying to emphasize in this study that forests and communities can be better protected by working with local communities and governments.”

Quotes:

Rodewald, A. D., Lello-Smith, A., Magliocca, N. R., McSweeney, K., Strimas-Mackey, M., Sesnie, S. E., & Nielsen, E. A. (2024). Intersection of drug trafficking, law enforcement, and bird conservation in the Americas. Nature Sustainability, 7(7), 855-859. doi:10.1038/s41893-024-01365-z

Sesnie, S. E., Tellman, B., Wrathall, D., McSweeney, K., Nielsen, E., Benessaiah, K., … Rey, L. (2017). A spatiotemporal analysis of forest loss associated with cocaine trafficking in Central America. Environmental Research Letters, 12(5), 054015. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa6fff

Banner image: A golden-cheeked warbler. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

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