The Truth Behind Your Valentine's Day Flowers
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Today on State of the World, the truth behind your Valentine's Day flowers. ♪

You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. Valentine's Day, the day when gestures of love are welcomed or perhaps required, depending on your particular relationship. And what could be a more classic gesture of love than buying flowers?

Are we going to ruin that for you today? Yes. Yes, we are. Ruth Sherlock reports on the true cost of that bouquet from Columbia, the largest exporter of flowers and foliage to the United States. I'm here in the Andes in Columbia, and I'm up here.

In a beautiful cloud forest, thousands of metres above sea level, you can see the vegetation emerging out of the mist. And this cloud forest is essential for the water cycle, feeding the arterial rivers that run through Colombia and beyond. But all of this is under threat. To my right is this lush vegetation. To my left is...

As far as the eye can see, bare, exposed, brown land. And what's being planted here instead is greenery used for flower bouquets. At a farm on a hillside surrounded by fragments of delicate cloud forest, I meet Marcos Bernal. His workers cut the crop of ferns and eucalyptus and other green leaves. The majority of the land is green.

He's saying they're getting ready for Valentine's Day. Colombian authorities say that for this romantic day, cargo planes have made over 500 flights to export flowers and foliage, mostly to the United States.

The farm where Bernal works has expanded sixfold in recent years, and he says the income has allowed him to put his daughters through university. The area is dotted with fields of foliage grown under plastic. Bernal says some other farmers do cut into the cloud forest to make space. Because they're not interested. They're interested in money.

All they're interested in is money, he says. Patricia Rodriguez runs an organisation called Ética Verde, or Green Ethics. She's seen the change in the landscape in the 16 years she's lived here. The rate of deforestation, is it slowing or getting faster now? Faster now. There are laws in Colombia to protect forests, and the government has managed to slow deforestation in the country.

But several experts told NPR that in this already fragmented cloud forest region, the rules are often poorly enforced. The local authorities and the Ministry of Environment haven't yet responded to our request for comment.

I want to send a message. Rodríguez says every bouquet you buy for your table, you're destroying a piece of forest. She says the cloud forest produces fresh water that feeds rivers. It's one of the most biodiverse places on earth, home to sloths and hummingbirds and rare orchids.

And there are dozens of animals and plants here that are found nowhere else on Earth. Cato Tafur says we're seeing the degradation of a paradise. He's an environmental activist who lives with his family in the cloud forests surrounded by trees and streams.

He says the foliage farms draw on groundwater and pollute rivers with the runoff from pesticides and fertilisers. But it's hard to campaign against an industry that's the main employer for people in the region. Tafur's partner, Anita Pacha, is trying to teach children through music about the animals that live in the cloud forest. MUSIC PLAYS

Pacha says she hopes Americans who hear this story will think about the true cost behind the bouquets they buy. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Cundinamarca, Colombia. That's the state of the world from NPR. Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you for listening.

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