Drug production and the war on drugs are taking a major toll on the environment from South America to the U.S. border, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sept. 24.

Scientists trying to protect sea turtles in Mexico's Baja California are among the many civilians threatened by the drug trade (traffickers don't want government boats in the water); rampant addiction among local populations also complicates conservation efforts. Sensitive ecosystems from Colombian forests to the Sonoran deserts of Mexico are used in drug production and trafficking.

"The fieldwork I do in northwest Mexico is severely impacted," said botanist Richard Felger, director of the Drylands Institute in Tucson, Ariz. "Everyone has guns now."

In Mexico, workers trying to prevent poaching have had shots fired at their homes, tires slashed, and windshields smashed by drug smugglers. The Sierra Madre highlands are teeming with marijuana and opium cultivation, and drug cartels have blocked access for conservation workers. Harvesting drug crops also displaces native animals, like jaguars and the endangered Sonoran pronghorned antelope.

In Colombia, half of the deforestation seen in recent years is linked to clearance of land to grow coca and opium; experts worry that anti-drug herbicide spraying will only make the situation worse.

To some extent, the drug trade may help prevent habitat destruction in remote areas by preventing access, but the negatives are seen as outweighing the positives.