San Martin
San Martín achieved 90% coca reduction through alternative development: cacao farmers saw 65% income gains in 2024, but palm oil threatens to displace gains.
San Martín represents successful ecological succession from illicit to licit cultivation—the region achieved a 90% reduction in coca production through USAID and UNODC alternative development programs that taught farmers sustainable cacao and coffee farming. The transition model works: Cooperativa Agraria Monte Azul, founded in 2015 with 20 members, now includes 302 farmers across 18 communities certified as Fair Trade, Organic, and EU-compliant. A 2024 five-year pilot concluded with 10,310 hectares becoming more climate-resilient, 532 farmers adopting agroforestry practices, and a 65% average income increase for participants.
The "Sustainable Cocoa Sourcing in Peru" project launched July 2024 aims to transform production through deforestation-free practices. The "Coffee and Forests Collective Action Agreement" brings private sector, government, and civil society together to develop policies ensuring deforestation-free coffee supply chains. Digital Identity applications tested with cacao producers enable geolocation of farms and access to market prices—technology supporting traceability that premium buyers increasingly demand.
Yet new pressures emerge as old ones fade. Oil palm plantations arrived in the 1970s near Tocache in the Upper Huallaga Valley, and expansion continues despite space constraints. Critics argue a January 2024 Forestry Law amendment effectively legalizes deforestation. The only way to expand palm oil in San Martín now is converting existing coffee, cacao, or pasture—forcing competition among legal crops for the same ecological space that coca once claimed. The region demonstrates that alternative development can work, but requires continuous policy vigilance against new extraction pressures.