Soil Health Impacts of Rubber Farming: The Implication of Conversion of Degraded Natural Forests into Monoculture Plantations

Abstract

High revenues from rubber latex exports have led to a rapid expansion of commercial rubber cultivation and, as a consequence, the conversion of different land use types (e.g., natural forests) into rubber plantations, which may lead to a decrease in soil health. In this study in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, we determined: (1) the variation of soil health parameters along a chronosequence of rubber tree stands and natural forests and (2) the relationships and potential feedback between vegetation types, vegetation structures and soil health. Our results revealed that: (1) soil health was higher in natural forests than in rubber plantations with a higher values in higher biomass forests; (2) soil health was lower in younger rubber plantations; (3) soil health depends on vegetation structure (with significantly positive relationships found between soil health and canopy cover, litter biomass, dry litter cover and ground vegetation cover). This study highlights the need for more rigorous land management practices and land use conversion policies in order to ensure the long-term conservation of soil health in rubber plantations.

The large-scale expansion of rubber plantations in southern India: major impacts and the changing nature of drivers

“…Our results also show that farmers face issues of soil degradation and increased soil erosion. A study by Nguyen et al ( 2020 ) has shown that the effects of rubber plantations on soil health appear to be greatest in the first five years after the plantation is established. In addition, the cultivation of rubber plantations raises serious concerns about soil health and conservation, especially when converting natural forests to rubber plantations (Nguyen et al, 2020 ).…”

Does Gamasid mites (Acari, Mesostigmata) observed in oil palm and rubber plantations can be used as indicators of tropical secondary forest soil transformation?

“…Gamasid species with r selection (dominated by colonizer species) were more common in the rubber and oil palm plantations (unstable habitats), whereas those with K selection were predominant in the secondary forests of Grand Lahou and La Mé (stable habitats) (Coja and Bruckner, 2006). Recent works demonstrated that the conversion of natural forests into monocultural plantations is associated with soil disturbance and changes in vegetation structure, leading to changes in soil properties (Conti, 2015;Vrignon-Brenas et al, 2019;Hemati et al, 2020;Nguyen et al, 2020). These observations were in line with our results as, the CCA biplot showed that the site of La Mé (secondary forests and oil palm plantations) was affected by the pH whilst, in the site of Grand Lahou, the rubber plantations and the secondary forests were respectively impacted by the bulk density and water content.…”

Land elevation and slope exposition impacts on rubber wood production volume under agroforestry system

“…Because of widely used in some industry inputs, the research on effect of booth factors have been conducted exhaustively to increase the latex productivity and quality [1 -4], and so did [5] reported their research on the roles of genetic factor on the latex productivity of some types of clonal resulted from the previous breeding. As for the extensive of research environmental effect on rubber growth and latex productivity can be referenced the work reported by [6] especially for climate factors (air temperature and rainfall) in relation to land suitability, [7] for soil fertility and management etc. None of these research reveals the roles of the genetic and environmental factors on rubber wood production but on latex productivity.…”