Ban on imports linked to deforestation might push South American farmers to grow more illegal coca.

South American diplomats are warning the European Union that its haste to implement a new law against deforestation could have a major unforeseen consequence: pushing their poorer farmers into the illegal drug trade.

Set for implementation next Jan. 1, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will force foreign agricultural producers to prove they don’t use denuded land — or lose access to the EU market. However, Peruvian and Colombian diplomats argue this will hurt their countries’ crop substitution programs, which wean peasant farmers off coca leaf — the source of cocaine.

“A large number of small producers were formerly producers of coca leaves,” said Luis Chávez Basagoitia, Peru’s ambassador to the EU.

“If we have difficulties selling cacao or coffee to Europe, we cannot exclude that those small producers may again shift towards coca leaves,” he told POLITICO in an interview.