Expanding rubber-tree plantations threatens biodiversity in Southeast Asia. Photo courtesy Eleanor Warren-Thomas, University of East Anglia.
Major sustainability push needed to protect habitat for endangered species
Staff Report
FRISCO — The growing global demand for rubber is threatening biodiversity in Southeast Asia, where expanding plantations are encroaching on protected areas, according to a new study from the University of East Anglia.
Meeting the demand will require up to 8.5 million hectares of additional rubber plantations, but expansion on this scale will have “catastrophic” biodiversity impacts, with globally threatened unique species and ecosystems all at risk the researchers said, comparing the extent of the problem to palm oil production.
The scientists urged major tire makers to support and strengthen sustainability initiatives and drive change in the industry to protect threatened natural resources.
“The tire industry consumes 70 per cent of all natural rubber grown, and rising demand for vehicle and airplane tyres is behind the recent expansion of plantations. But the impact of this is a loss of tropical biodiversity,” said Eleanor Warren-Thomas, from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences.
“We predict that between 4.3 and 8.5 million hectares of new plantations will be required to meet projected demand by 2024. This will threaten significant areas of Asian forest, including many protected areas,” Warren-Thomas said, explaining that the conversion of land to rubber-producing plantations harms soil, water availability, biodiversity, and local people’s livelihoods.
The study focuses on four biodiversity hotspots in which rubber plantations are expanding – Sundaland (Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali), Indo-Burma (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, most of Myanmar and Thailand, and parts of Southwest China, including Xishuangbanna and Hainan Island), Wallacea (Indonesian islands east of Bali and Borneo but west of New Guinea, plus Timor Leste) and the Philippines.
The study showed that protected areas have already been lost, including more than 70 per cent of the 75,000 hectare Snoul Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia, which was cleared for rubber between 2009 and 2013.
Some of the areas slated for new plantations are home to critically endangered water birds like the White Shouldered Ibis, globally threatened mammals like Eld’s deer and Banteng, and many important primates and carnivores. Primate species often disappear completely from forests which have been converted to rubber, and the review shows that numbers of bird, bat and beetle species can decline by up to 75 per cent.
“Conversion to rubber monoculture also has a knock on effect for freshwater species because fertilizers and pesticides run off into rivers and streams. In Laos, local people have reported dramatic declines in fish, crabs, shrimps, shellfish, turtles and stream bank vegetation. In Xishuangbanna, China, well water was found to be contaminated,” the study found.
Tackling the problem requires the same focus given to palm oil production, including certification plans for sustainable operations.
“Rubber grown on deforested land is not treated any differently in the market to rubber grown in a more sustainable way. This is misleading, especially when some products made from natural rubber are labelled as an ‘eco-friendly’ alternative to petrochemicals,” the authors concluded.
In some cases, palm-oil growers who can’t get sustainability certification have switched to rubber production, which shifts palm oil plantations to other lands and increases the total land conversion rate.
A Sustainable Natural Rubber Initiative (SNR-i) that was launched in January 2015 marks a first step, but needs support from large tire manufacturers and attention from sustainability researchers to ensure it gains traction.
