Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Alternative Development: taking stock and looking forward
La Asunta, Bolivia: Sabino Ortiz, walking through a dense thicket of trees, stops and fingers some bright red beans.
“This is my second harvest,” he says proudly, gesturing towards his plantation.
It was a long road for Sabino and his family to become coffee farmers. He, his wife, and their four children moved to La Asunta, a municipality in the Amazonas area of Bolivia, six years ago.
“Back then, coca production was very important in this region,” Sabino adds.
Coca leaf is used to create cocaine. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC’s) Global Report on Cocaine 2023, the global supply of cocaine is at record levels. The steep growth in supply has been matched by a similar swelling in demand, with many regions showing a steady rise in cocaine users over the past decade.
Upon his move to La Asunta, Sabino decided to become a coca farmer, too. “We were many coca leaf growers at the time,” he says.
As Sabino soon realized, however, cultivating coca would not provide the steady income he had hoped.
“The price decreased,” he laments, “and the government’s law affected us.”
Sabino was referring to an agreement signed between the government and coca farmers, under which the land in La Asunta is divided into three zones. In the red zone, which consists mostly of protected areas, no coca cultivation is allowed. In the yellow zone, one ‘cato’ (0.16 ha) of cultivation per farmer is permitted; while in the green zone, growers can cultivate one hectare of coca.
“As a community, we were split” by this division, Sabino explains. He and others began contemplating other ways to make a living.
UNODC’s Alternative Development programme offered such an opportunity. Alternative development initiatives seek to provide sustainable livelihoods to communities that cultivate illicit drug crops because they are unable to obtain sufficient income from legal activities due to conflict or lack of markets, basic infrastructure, or land.
Under this project, farmers like Sabino were offered the opportunity to switch from growing coca to growing coffee. At first, Sabino was wary of whether there would be a market for the coffee he grew. “When we started producing coffee, we were worried about where we would sell it,” he confesses.
But thanks to a partnership UNODC brokered with Malongo, a French coffee roaster, farmers from the local association of agro-ecological producers in Bolivia like Sabino are guaranteed a fair price for their coffee. In exchange, Malongo can ensure that the coffee that reaches its customers is ethical and traceable.
“All of us feel proud for exporting our coffee abroad,” Sabino says, referring to his community association of around 20 coffee-growing families. “It is a good alternative [to growing coca] that gives us income and security.”
No longer, Sabino continues, is he afraid of that the government may eradicate or otherwise control his crops. “Working with coffee makes us happy, since even our children can help with the plantation and harvest.”
Many new families in his village want to produce coffee and work with Malongo, Sabino reports.
“At the same time, some of us are trying to expand our plantations. We hope that in a few years we can increase production and export an entire container ourselves.
“That is our vision.”
