Between Conservation and Extraction

Between conservation and extraction: Addressing socioecological dynamics of illicit economies and opportunities for rural development in Protected Areas of the Peruvian Amazon (2021-2025)

My doctoral project, funded by the Fonds Wettenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO), is an interdisciplinary research initiative that combines spatial analysis, soil analysis and qualitative fieldwork to evaluate the socio-ecological change brought by the rise of coca cultivation in the Peruvian Amazon.

Research Questions

• What is the conventional wisdom on the environmental impact on drug trafficking in Latin America?
• What is the impact of coca cultivation on forest loss in the Peruvian Amazon?
• What effect does high intensity coca cultivation have on soil’s physical and chemical parameters?
• How do local communities and indigenous peoples respond to the rise of coca cultivation?
• What are the dynamics of alternative development projects in hotspots of coca cultivation?

Methodology

• Spatial modeling
• Soil analysis
• GIS and spatial econometrics
• Fieldwork and interviews

Publications

• Busnel, R., & Manrique, H. (2023). The political economy of a failed drug reform: Insights from Peru’s main legal coca valley. International Journal of Drug Policy, 117, 104050
• Manrique, H., & Hernando, D. (2024). Cultivo de coca y minería ilegal en la Amazonía peruana. Debates en Sociología, (59), 118-146.