Rebel taxes on illegal crops are a major revenue source that helps finance rebel operations.

It is currently in danger due to illegal crops and other ecological threats.

Soldiers were sent in on at least one occasion to destroy the illegal crop.

Colombia has huge acreage dedicated to growing illegal crops.

But less well known is the way that policy affects the peasants who took up illegal crops, in a Faustian bargain to join the middle class.

Experts say the high profit Afghan farmers make on opium is by far the largest incentive they have to grow the illegal crop.

Those who grow illegal crops may care little about such environmental impacts and legal restrictions on pesticides.

The annual marijuana eradication effort will spend $1 million to destroy the illegal crop, with a street value estimated at $1 billion.

The armed groups also deforest large areas to cultivate illegal crops and open unauthorized highways in protected areas.

Also, illegal crops, such as opium poppy and cannabis, can be destroyed by law enforcement.