The Amazon in the crossfire. Review of the special chapter of the UN World Drug Report 2023 on the Amazon Basin

This article reviews the chapter of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report (WDR) 2023 on ‘The Nexus Between Drugs and Crimes that Affect the Environment and Convergent Crime in the Amazon Basin’. The WDR 2023 gathers the evidence on the multiple impacts of a complex crime ecosystem on natural and social systems in the four countries that share most of the Amazon Basin. Evidence on the magnitude and complexity of the impacts of drug-related crime, crimes that affect the environment, and convergent crime suggests the need for comprehensive approaches at different levels of policymaking and its implementation. So far, the siloed approaches of the UN drug control and criminal justice and crime prevention regimes, replicated in many of its Member States, do not properly reflect the situaton in areas like the Amazon. The WDR 2023 is considered to make a meaningful contribution to bridge the wide gaps between policy debates and realities on the ground.