Illicit Crop Monitoring in Mexico

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The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Navy and the Attorney General's Office launched the project system Illicit Crop Monitoring in Mexican territory.

This initiative seeks to strengthen technical and technological national institutions to coordinate and implement the illicit crop monitoring for research, analysis and policy making The project coordinator Sebastian Solis stated that UNODC will support these agencies with technical methodologies and the application of advanced technologies for the detection of illicit crops to strengthen Mexico's strategy in this area.

He said that the federal strategy is centered on the eradication of marijuana and poppy crops, and not monitoring or detecting various narcotics planting.

Solis explained that the main growing areas are in the "golden triangle", comprising the states of Durango, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Guerrero, but "the trend" spread to Jalisco, Michoacán and Oaxaca.

He explained that the National Center for Planning, Analysis and Information for Combating Crime (CENAPI)  the Attorney General's Office (PGR) is the "administrative leader" of the project.

The government of Mexico will contribute more than 10 million pesos in the period of three year duration of the project, whose results will be announced jointly by the United Nations (UN) and the federal government, he said.

At the Appropriate, the captain of the Navy (Semar), Alfredo Enriquez said that the results of this joint project will have a strong impact in the fight against drug traffickin

He also disclosed that Semar geosatelital developed a system to monitor and detect the illicit cultivation of crops, and thus armed troops directly addresses these areas.

Semar Enriquez recalled that in 2007 developed various techniques for monitoring poppy plantations, and in 2008 for the detection of marijuana by geosatelital system, which is made available to the UN for evaluation. In turn, the expert in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System of UNODOC, Coen Bussink criticized Mexico has focused this strategy on crop eradication mentioned and set aside such monitoring crops.

Bussink stressed that the satellite imaging system that will implement the project will provide optimal information for public policy development, and information obtained will be shared by the government of Mexico to the UN.

During this ceremony was also attended by the representative of the PGR-CENAPI, William Jordan and Ruby White.

[readon1 url="http://www.prensaglobal.com"]Source:PrensaGlobal - Translation by Suyapa Ajuria[/readon1]