Coffee Farmers who are Landmine Victims!

2 Comments

Comment by Andres Castro on March 5, 2008 at 9:00am

Hola

This is a topic that not many people from abroad have heard about so often. This kind of problems faced in countries like Colombia certainly makes some rural areas more dangerous to work or visit. I would like just to point out that landmine have been used by illegal groups with many purposes such as protect guerrillas camps, drug illicit crop, or just because is the enemy land among others. I believe that coffee has been affected by a collateral effect. I am positive that many coffee regions do not experience this difficulty but unfortunately few ones already face this problem. I am also positive to say that must of the coffee areas are free from landmines and just a very small percentage could eventually face this problem. I would encourage our friend Swapna who posted this article to give us more detail information about which coffee regions in Colombia for example are exactly facing this ordeal and where these mines are located. I am sure there is almost impossible to put together a map to locate every single landmine in the coffee region and even to point an specific area.
Finally, my point is that is safe to come and visit most of the coffee rural areas without fearing of step in one of those mines. If you are not sure just ask local people or someone that have already visit this country from abroad to be sure how safe if the area that you want to visit.

I look forward to hear more comments.


Sincerely,


Andres Castro

Comment by Swapna on March 12, 2008 at 7:03am

My overall intention was not to imply that visiting coffee regions in Colombia is a dangerous thing. In fact, I was just trying to raise awareness of the problems that face the coffee farming industry around the entire world. Colombia was just one example of a country affected by landmines. If you want some information about the landmine situation in Colombia:

" Of Colombia's 1,119 municipalities, one out of two is affected by mines across 31 of its 32 departments; essentially, half of the country's territory is affected. Colombia ranks fourth in the world behind Chechnya, Afghanistan and Cambodia in the total number of casualties from landmines. According to a 2005 fact sheet released by the Office of the Vice Presidency’s Anti-personnel Mines Observatory, Colombia is the fourth most mine-contaminated country in the world.1 On average, landmines kill about two people each day in the country."

But this is not to say that people within the country are not trying to do anything to help...

"The governor of Antioquia, one of the most heavily mined regions in the country, took the initiative to create a Humanitarian Commission. The commission’s intent is to find regional solutions to suffering caused by conflict. Working with Geneva Call, it negotiated agreements with rebel groups to demine high-impact civilian areas such as water sources, schools and farming areas. Homicides, massacres, kidnappings and acts of terrorism have decreased since 2002, and coca and poppy (used to manufacture illicit drugs) cultivation has gone down by as much as 33 percent since 2001.2 Despite these few positive steps forward, however, the people of Colombia continue to live in an environment plagued by conflict, terrorism and in particular, landmines."

Anyway, Colombia is just one example. If you want the breakdown of coffee-exporting countries, just look at this map. http://coffeelandstrust.org/coffee-and-landmines

My overall point was to become active and to show the importance of volunteerism and altruism. This is just one organization that does what many try to do: help others help themselves.

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