Bakery owner Manuel Seminario sells pasta, cookies, energy bars, wine, and toothpaste made with coca (Photo: John Otis)

Coca leaves provide an energy boost, when chewed or consumed in tea. They’re used to treat headaches, toothaches, and intestinal cramps, among other things.

What are the two countries we’re looking for? Here’s one more quick clue: these countries are neighbors but only one of them lies on the Pacific.

Answer: Bolivia and Peru.

By John Otis

At an outdoor market in a slum in the Peruvian capital, Lima, a coca vender stuffs handfuls of green leaves into plastic bags. She has many loyal customers who say that chewing coca suppresses hunger and provides a boost of energy.

One buyer, who’s a truck driver, said sometimes he gets tired. “So I chew a little coca,” he said, “and I no longer feel weary.”

Back in 1961, the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs classified the coca leaf as a dangerous narcotic, putting it in the same league as cocaine and heroin. But critics say that’s absurd — like equating barley with whisky.

Coca leaves are high in calcium and can relieve altitude sickness. Many South American Indians use coca in religious ceremonies. Before he was elected president of Bolivia, Evo Morales headed his country’s main coca growers union. And he’s been known to say that it’s scientifically proven that coca leaves in their natural state don’t harm human health.

Symbolic quest

Morales has been lobbying to eliminate the provision about coca chewing from the UN treaty. His quest is largely symbolic since chewing the leaves is permitted in Bolivia and Peru, where Indians have chewed coca leaves for centuries. There’s even a Peruvian government agency that buys coca from farmers and sells the leaves to chewers. But proponents say the Morales amendment would remove the stigma from coca and enhance the market for tea, soft drinks and other natural products made from coca leaves.

At a Lima bakery, workers mix cookie dough using green flour made of ground-up coca leaves. Manuel Seminario, the owner of the bakery, also sells pasta, energy bars, wine, and toothpaste made with coca.

But Seminario can only sell to people in Peru because the UN treaty bans the export of coca leaf products. On the international market, Seminario claims coca-based energy drinks could be a healthy alternative to Red Bull. He’s so passionate about coca that he and his wife, Mariel, host a weekly radio program to promote the plant.

Among UN member states, there’s wide support for easing restrictions on coca chewing. But the change requires unanimous support, and the Obama administration opposes the Morales amendment, saying it would send a confusing message amid the war on drugs.

There are other concerns about giving coca the UN’s stamp of approval. Just a tiny fraction of the 300,000 tons of coca leaf grown each year in South America is used for chewing or food products, according to Peruvian economist Hugo Cabieses. The rest is mixed with gasoline, uric acid and other toxic chemicals to make cocaine.

Number of chewers dropping

Meanwhile, the number of coca chewers may be going down as highland Indians migrate to the cities and give up traditional practices.

“Each day fewer people chew the coca leaf because young people leave the Andean regions and they do not carry the custom anymore,” said Alejandro Vassilaqui, head of CEDOS, a Peruvian anti-drug organization that works closely with the US government.

Yet coca leaf products are also winning some new converts. Coca tea is served at hotels throughout Peru and Bolivia. Jerry Borscheid, an American tourist bound for Machu Picchu, swears by it.

“I have not drunk a cup of coffee since I’ve been here,” Borscheid said. “It’s been this every morning.”

In fact, Borscheid and his wife have considered bringing some back home to Minnesota — until they remember that coca tea is illegal in the US.

(Photo: Dan Grossman)

At an open-air market on the bank of the Napo River in eastern Ecuador, a group of men bid on smoked wild animal parts offered for sale by four native Huaorani women. The women have just arrived here in the village of Pompeya by motorized canoe from their territory across the Napo. Within a day or two, the meat from their rainforest home will be served in restaurants across Ecuador’s Amazonia region.

The Pompeya market is the only regular bushmeat bazaar in Ecuador, and business is brisk. A recent report estimated that about 12 tons is sold here every year. Quito-based Biologist Esteben Suarez, who wrote the report, says nearly 50 species are traded at the market, including the agouti—a large local rodent—wild pigs, birds, reptiles and fish. Suarez says the numbers are growing, and the hunting is starting to take a toll.

“They’re pretty much catching every single monkey that they can get their hands on,” Suarez says.

He’s worried about the impact on animal local populations, but he’s more concerned about the overall health of the forest. Big mammals like the agouti perform critical jobs in a rainforest, like dispersing seeds and controlling seed-eating rodents. A forest without its big mammals could be an ecosystem in trouble.

The problem is especially acute because of where the Huaorani live. Their forest territory is in what’s now Yasuni National Park, which harbors among the greatest variety of animal and plant life on Earth. Among its hundreds of animals species are troops of common howler monkeys and rare mammals such as jaguars and pumas.

The Huaorani have hunted in this forest for centuries but until recently only to feed themselves. What’s happening now is different.

“It’s totally illegal,” says Ecuadorean wildlife official Javier Vargas.

Vargas says the Huaorani have the right to hunt, but only for subsistence. Commercial hunting is not permitted, which may be why it’s difficult to find any Huaorani willing to talk about the bushmeat trade.

The Huaorani have been selling bushmeat to outsiders since the 1960s, when Ecuador began to open its Amazonian lowlands to oil drilling. The Huaorani developed an appetite for modern goods, and hunting earned them cash to buy things.

But it was a new road that turned the new commercial hunting from a small problem into a big one.

The road was built by an oil Company in the 1990s, and was touted at the time as ecologically friendly, because access would be tightly controlled. That has mostly prevented the kinds of problems that have followed new forest roads elsewhere, such as homesteading and clearing of the forest by outsiders. But it seems no one foresaw that the road would become a bushmeat superhighway. It created an easy route out of the forest for Huaorani hunters, including free transportation. Any Huaorani can hitch a ride on an oil company vehicle.

Biologist Suarez says that means hunters can bring out a lot more meat.

“If you’re walking, you can’t carry much more than two wild peccaries on your back and that’s it,” Suarez says. “You don’t hunt any more.”

“But if you know that there is going to be a truck that will come eventually through the road, and you can transport that much more meat, then you kill like the whole troupe of peccaries.”

Suarez says commercial hunting in the Yasuni forest is simply not sustainable.

Wildlife official Javier Vargas agrees, but he says there are no plans to shut down the meat market.

Vargas says the government has already tried seizing all the animals in similar markets elsewhere, and that it doesn’t work. Instead, he says the environment ministry plans to join forces with other institutions to help to fight the issue in a more strategic way. Among other things, they’re trying to develop ecotourism and other sources of income for the Huaorani,

Wildlife scientist Esteban Suarez is cautiously optimistic about such plans. But he says the Ecuadorean government will need to work creatively to protect the forest and its wildlife while also respecting the rights of the people who live there.

This report was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Whole Systems Foundation.

Fishermen toss dorado into a refrigerated truck on the docks of Manta

Melaina Spitzer: On the docks in Manta’s harbor, fishermen heave a catch of giant Dorado out of a rustic boat. Manta has long been a fishing port, but down the harbor lies a symbol of the city’s future – a huge ship packed with cars from Asia. Manta hopes to become a major hub for Asian imports to South America.

Patricio Padilla

Melaina Spitzer: That’s Patricio Padilla, the Manager of Manta’s Port Authority. He was at a recent gathering to discuss a bold idea for Manta – to make this harbor a competitor with the Panama canal.

Patricio Padilla: “The idea is to have some cargo, that right now is crossing the Panama canal and going around South America, and that cargo will go from Manta through the Amazonas River to Manaus. “

Melaina Spitzer: Manaus is a Brazilian city almost 1,500 miles to the east. It has a major port that’s connected to the Atlantic by the Amazon River. The idea to link these cities by land is part of a $ 70 billion plan for a web of trade routes across South America. Here’s how the Manta-Manaus Project would work: Ships from Asia would dock in Manta and unload their cargo onto trucks. The trucks would carry the cargo up the highway to Quito, over the Andes, and down the other side to the Ecuadorian Amazon. From there, they would go by riverboat, through Peru, to Brazil.

Coca, Ecuador

A key link in the chain is the Ecuadorian river port town of Coca. Coca’s marina on the Napo river is currently a quiet docking point for canoes and small petroleum boats. But if the Manta-Manaus project goes forward, it will become a major shipping hub. Carlos Torres is with Coca’s Ministry of Agriculture. He says the project could provide a big help to area farmers.

Carlos Torres: Local farmers would be able to ship their produce to distant markets and reap more of the benefits without middlemen calling the shots. It’s a great project, a huge opportunity.

Melaina Spitzer: But many in Coca say putting a major trade route through the jungle is just asking for trouble. Carlos Sierra, spent twenty years navigating the Napo River in large petroleum ships. He says cargo boats heading for Brazil may never make it out of Ecuador – because the water is too shallow.

Carlos Sierra: With this type of boat it is truly very risky. They contracted me many times to rescue international Brazilian and Peruvian boats that had failed and were stuck because of water levels.

Melaina Spitzer: The engineers of Manta-Manaus hope that dredging the river will keep boats from getting stuck. The Ecuadorian government has already bought up land along the Amazonian route and paid contractors to clear forests and farms. But those who make their home along the river say dredging and logging will threaten their communities and the area’s plant and animal life. The Manta-Manaus route runs through or alongside 4 national parks in Ecuador. Coca’s mayor Anita Rivas says this shows the government is only interested in one thing:

Coca Mayor Anita Rivas

Melaina Spitzer: Others are concerned about threats the project poses to human health. Indigenous groups in Ecuador have already seen cancer rates shoot up, including among children. Many scientists blame the contamination of fish and water supplies by oil extraction. Manuela Ima, President of the Association of Huaorani Women fears that pollution from the Manta-Manaus project will bring similar risks.

Manuela Ima: For me this means pain of the ugliest sort. It can bring sickness, vomiting, cancer, flu. There are so many problems caused by contamination.

Melaina Spitzer: Many indigenous groups intend to fight the trade route, and they say they’ve got the law on their side. Ecuador’s new Constitution protects the rights of nature and requires the government to consult indigenous groups before beginning infrastructure projects that affect their territory. The Manta-Manaus project, many say, violates these rights.

This Kichwa indigenous family will have to leave their home to make way for a new airport

Money could also be a problem for the project. It’s estimated that the route will cost as much as two billion dollars to build. International lenders have been reluctant to put out money for the project. And some question if this project could ever really make money. They say this complex system of shipping by truck and riverboat won’t be able to compete on cost with the panama canal. Among the skeptics is Manta’s mayor, Jorge Zambrano.

Jorge Zambrano: Manta-Manaus is not even a project, it’s an idea…I can have an idea right now, I wanna construct a big Mall, but I don’t have the money to do it and it’s just an idea, an illusion, a dream.

Melaina Spitzer: Still, South America seems ready to dream big, with many infrastructure projects across the continent already underway. Zambrano just hopes that dream doesn’t turn out to be a nightmare for Ecuadorians and for the Amazon.

For the World, I’m Melaina Spitzer, Manta, Ecuador.

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