More than 1.4 million acres of Colombian forest are being razed every year by drug traffickers and poor farmers planting illegal coca and poppy crops, a senior police official said Friday.
"The impact of drug trafficking on the environment is clear and serious," said Col. Leonardo Gallego, head of the anti-narcotics division of the National Police."The natural resources of the jungles and Andean forests are being devastated," he said.
"We have to put a definitive end to this, once and for all, because a disaster is occurring in Colombia," he added.
Gallego, who spoke at a forum on the environmental impact of the drug trade, did not say how the statistics were obtained.
The anti-narcotics division regularly overflies forested areas of Colombia seeking drug plantations and clandestine drug laboratories used to make cocaine and heroin.