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- VOL. 12.6
Epat Diary:
To both environmentalists and rubber industry workers, 1898 was an important year: the first rubber tree was planted in Thailand, in the southern province of Trang (that very tree still stands). Since 1898, plantations have spread rapidly throughout Thailand, with approximately 1.965 million hectares now planted to rubber, more than 80 percent of them on the southern peninsula.
Rubber plantations have both shaped the lives of southern Thais and had important ecological effects. Overall, however, has rubber’s advent been beneficial? It depends on who’s answering the question.
Rubber plantation owners would respond with a resounding yes. Plantations are labour-intensive, and provide work for large numbers of people. The Thai rubber industry is primarily smallholder-based, with an average plantation size of 2.4 hectares. Often, a family works a given plantation, sharing the costs and the income.
Rubber plantations best grow on relatively flat, low-lying land. These areas would have previously been evergreen forests, rich in biodiversity. Lowland tropical forest is the most diverse ecological habitat in the world, with the Thai versions second only in species diversity to those of the Amazon Basin. About 50 years ago, 60 percent of Thailand was covered in forest. Today that figure is less than 20 percent. The number-one reason for this dramatic decrease has been the spread of cash crops, in particular rubber.
To put a monetary value on a rubber plantation is easy. To put a monetary value on a rainforest is much more difficult. Some would say it’s impossible. Nevertheless, there is an intrinsic value. Many modern medicines originate in the rainforest, for example. And no one really knows what more the forests may hold in the way of cures for future ailments. The international pharmaceutical industry has a turnover of billions of US dollars per year, and the foundations of this industry lie in the tropical forests. Surely this adds value to the forest resource.
On the other hand, land under rubber cultivation suffers a decline in soil fertility, since monoculture systems leech nutrients from the soil. Where areas have been clear-cut prior to or following rubber crops, large-scale soil erosion and run-off soon follow. This was highlighted in southern Thailand in 1988, in the village of Kireewong, Nakhorn Si Thammarat, where, following heavy rains, landslides killed 300 villagers. At first thought to be a natural disaster, closer inspection showed that ill-advised logging had removed the forest cover, inviting the flooding that ensued. More recently, 20-30 villagers were killed in a logging-related flood in the North.
Tropical forest is also of enormous value to the tourism industry on Phuket and in the rest of southern Thailand – and this is something that’s considerably easier to calculate in monetary terms. Tourism has become Thailand’s biggest industry, and eco-tourism is the fastest-growing sector here, as it is in the industry world-wide. Many visitors are travelling to see natural attractions, including national parks, tropical forest and wildlife, and more and more tours are designed to satisfy this booming demand. Eco-tourism can be an important source of employment for Thai people, with the industry requiring guides, drivers, office staff, reservation staff, marketing and sales personnel, and more. Continued deforestation and land clearance for cash crops such as rubber threaten to stem a lucrative flow of income into the country.
The question boils down to this: are rubber and tourism still compatible developments in an area such as Phuket?
Rubber Tapping Tapping starts early in the morning, about 3.00-4.00am. Using a special knife, the tapper chips away a line of bark part-way around the trunk of the tree. The rubber runs along this line and drips for about two hours into a cup suspended from the tree before being collected. The pure latex is then mixed with formic acid and water (50:50) and poured into aluminium trays, where it is left for one or two hours to form a gello about an inch thick. The gello is then removed from the tray and compacted by workers who tread upon it with their feet. Next, it’s passed once or twice through a roller press, squeezing out the excess water. The resulting sheet is left to dry in the sun and then sold to a rubber merchant.
The rubber tree provides raw latex which, after being refined, can be used in products such as rubber gloves and car tyres. The productive life-span of a rubber tree is between 30 and 40 years, after which it is cut down. The wood is sold off to make such items as furniture, packing boxes, and toys.
All of this contributes to the local economy. But at what costs to that same economy and to the natural environment?