Demand for natural rubber fuelled by the tyre industry is threatening protected parts of Southeast Asia, according to the University of East Anglia (UEA).
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A new study published predicts that up to 8.5 million hectares of additional rubber plantations will be required to meet demand by 2024 but expansion on this scale will have 'catastrophic' biodiversity impacts, with globally threatened unique species and ecosystems all put under threat.
Researchers say that the extent of the problem is comparable to oil palm and that it is closely linked to the growing tyre market. They urge manufacturers such as Goodyear and Michelin to support and strengthen sustainability initiatives and drive change in the industry.
Lead researcher Eleanor Warren-Thomas, from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "The tyre industry consumes 70 per cent of all natural rubber grown, and rising demand for vehicle and aeroplane tyres is behind the recent expansion of plantations. But the impact of this is a loss of tropical biodiversity.
"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.
"There has been growing concern that switching land use to rubber cultivation can negatively impact the soil, water availability, biodiversity, and even people's livelihoods.
"But this is the first review of the effects on biodiversity and endangered species, and to estimate the future scale of the problem in terms of land area."
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.
"Protected areas have already been lost to rubber plantations. For example, more than 70 per cent of the 75,000 hectare Snoul Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia was cleared for rubber between 2009 and 2013.
"In Cambodia, forest areas earmarked for further rubber plantations contain critically endangered water birds like the White Shouldered Ibis, globally threatened mammals like Eld's deer and Banteng, and many important primates and carnivores.
"Macaques and gibbons are known to disappear completely from forests which have been converted to rubber, and our 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 fertilisers 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.
"These findings show that rubber expansion could substantially exacerbate the extinction crisis in Southeast Asia. ■