Exploring the land-drugs nexus

Most drug crop cultivating areas are greatly affected by poverty, physical isolation, landlessness, insecure land rights and conflicts over natural resources. Land is one of the key factors of production in the drug economy. Existing evidence from projects in the field and single-case studies suggest that whether or not the rural population has secure land rights influences their decision on the type of crops that they cultivate. For many poor farmers, the cultivation of drug crops represents a coping mechanism to prevail in difficult environments. There is, however, only little systematic and cross-cutting research on the correlation between land tenure and illicit drug crop cultivation. At the same time, both international drug policy and the development-related debates mostly disregard the linkages between land and drug policies. This brainstorming seeks to discuss how conflicts and disputes over access to land need to be embedded in alternative and rural development strategies.