Tea Production and Dilemmas on China’s Southwest Frontier (original) (raw)

Over the past decade, the cultivation of rubber trees has expanded rapidly throughout the Mekong region to non-traditional rubber growing areas of Laos and Myanmar. Prompted by rising prices from 1990 to 2010 and government agro-industrialization policies, farmers and investors have rushed to plant the new boom crop. A latex price crash in 2011, however, has made it more challenging for small-scale producers to earn an income, leading to uneven social-ecological transformations and economic consequences. Several proposals have been made to address these challenges by transforming rubber into a more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable crop. In this paper, which emerged from one such project to investigate the potential for " green " rubber, we argue that the sustainability of rubber is a challenging and elusive prospect – particularly in resource frontier contexts like Laos and Myanmar. Concepts like " sustainability " or " green " production are vague and malleable. They can be imbued with a variety of contradictory meanings, which often do not address the most socially and environmentally problematic aspects of cash crop expansion. Sustainable rubber, if rigorously and specifically defined, would be exceedingly difficult to reach in both countries, due to the ways in which political-economic and governance factors interact with the biophysical and social characteristics of the crop. Instead, we recommend using sustainability as a political tool for highlighting the most harmful socio-environmental impacts of rubber and generating debate concerning the best ways to address these, thus limiting unsustainable practices.

Key points: 1) Smallholder rubber production in southern Myanmar has alleviated rural poverty, while large-scale plantation concessions in the north have led to land expropriation and limited livelihood options for rural people. 2) Policies should support smallholder rubber production over large-scale models, while addressing the economic challenges that smallholders face, such as low quality and quantity of latex production. 3) All forms of rubber production require regulation to ensure that land use rights of rural people are not infringed upon, forests are not cleared to make way for rubber plantations and the use of agrochemicals is limited. 4) A diversity of subsistence and cash crops should be planted – at the landscape level and in plots using agroforestry – to retain higher levels of biodiversity and protect against price crashes.

More than 90% of the global natural rubber production originates from monoculture plantations in tropical Asia, especially from countries forming the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Rubber cultivation is expected to further increase strongly in the near future, particularly at the expense of natural forests, and is accompanied by various problems and threats to farmers and the environment. Implications on carbon balance and hydrological conditions as well as socio-economic consequences referring to the situation in the GMS are reviewed. Results indicate considerable changes in ecosystem functions and services at different spatial and temporal scales with impacts on carbon stocks and sequestration, water quality and quantity, runoff and soil erosion. The long-term dependency on rubber as a single crop affects the socio-economic conditions and livelihood of the farmers and exposes them to economic and ecological hazards. Solutions for these interrelated problems require the development of alternative land-use systems and safeguarding important ecosystem functions and services on the one hand as well as providing economic viability on the other. Common suggestions include crop diversification and improved plantation management on the farm scale, and alternative land-use strategies including conservation and restoration of forest on the landscape scale. Successful implementation of more sustainable concepts is only feasible within a socio-economic framework, involving farmers and political decision-makers in the conceptualization process and the identification of trade-offs between ecological requirements and economic feasibility.

In this paper, we aimed at examining the role of natural rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) cultivation as a source of income for rural communities as well as a potential source of ecological damage. We reviewed existing scientific literature and data sources on natural rubber cultivation particularly in south East Asia. We observed that, the latex from the lower part of the trunk has a high commercial value which can assist rural communities in socioeconomic development; the trunk is a source of timber and wood while its branches are now being used for firewood and pegs. We also found out that, rubber cultivation harms watersheds and destroys tropical forest ecosystems. Nevertheless, the cultivation and establishment of rubber plantations would have a very positive socioecological impact with adequate and effective management and proper sustainable planning as well as an involvement of rural communities in the decision making process.

Thailand is moving away from rice-based agriculture to high-value-crop agriculture, especially rubber production in southern regions. The present study reviews the five main rubber-based production systems in Phatthalung and Songkhla provinces. The investment capacity of most farms is limited and depends on fluctuations in market prices. Consequently, diversification through agroforestry practices is an adapted alternative to overcome such constraint. Conversely, smallholders who cultivate rice and rubber only receive a subsistence-level income for the family. Hence there is a clear trend among smallholders in southern Thailand to convert their farms to rubber monoculture but also strong evidence for the need for diversification in a region that is already too specialized in rubber.

Over the past decade, rubber cultivation has expanded throughout the Mekong region, from established centers of production in Thailand, China and Vietnam to new sites in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Rubber has brought opportunities for increased incomes and livelihood improvement as well as social and environmental risks. The2012 drop in rubber prices has sent the sector into disarray, halting the expansion of rubber and constraining the ability of farmers and companies to profit. This study examines how rubber production in Myanmar is governed, especially the socio-ecological dynamics of varying forms of production: smallholding, contract farming and large-scale estate plantations. Based upon an analysis of secondary literature and interviews with key stakeholders, it was found that rubber production in Myanmar is for the most part not ‘green’, meaning that it has not reduced poverty and protected ecosystem services and forested areas. The price crash has prevented most smallholding farmers from increasing their income. Wages on large-scale plantations have been low and only a limited amount of work for Myanmar people is available. Large-scale estates have been developed on land expropriated from communities and have replaced forested areas that provide important ecosystem services to local communities. The paper argues that if rubber is to be truly green then significant changes to production and trade must be made, including minimum price supports from the state, appropriate land use planning measures, the establishment of cooperatives, the protection of community land rights, and the implementation of agroforestry rubber production models.