How Rubber Plantation Affect The Environment

By planting thousands of rubber trees, the natural forests are being cut down in order to get fertilized land and by this, it worsened Phuket's environment along with all the pollution Phuket is making. This causes great consequences towards Phuket itself and the world.

Deforestation In Phuket

Cutting down trees causes the greenhouse gas emission, about 900 rai of mangroves in the province have also been damaged. First the natural trees are cut down and then they started to plant the rubber tree, once the rubber trees are fully grown and cannot be tapped anymore, they will be cut down, causing more emission gases that contributes to Global Warming, and this process will be repeated. Sooner or later there will be no natural land to plant more rubber trees and we will have to wait for the old land to get more fertilized.

Thousands Of Rubber trees have replaced the forest

However,more land are being bought for construction, therefore, the rubber trees industries are reduced and less trees are being planted, creating more impact on Phuket than ever. Phuket is an island so if there are more heavy constructions made, it is possible that Phuket will sink. (And will sink earlier because of the ice in the poles melting.)

How Rubber Farms Became One Of A Tourist Attraction

Since the very first years of rubber industry in Phuket, it became the main source of income. Even though the plantation of rubber have declined during the past 20 years, (exports from Thailand amounted to 210.9 billion US Dollars in 2015, 7.8 percent down since 2011, and 7.3 percent down from 2014 to 2015) It is still making a huge amount of income for Phuket, both directly and indirectly.

Products from Rubber

Directly, Phuket is making a major income of the rubber tree plantation by exporting the products of latex, for example: latex pillow, to several countries. Base on statistics from the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook Database, Thailand's total Gross Domestic Product amounted to 1.107 trillion Dollars in 2015, therefore, exports accounted for about 19.2 percent of total Thai economic output.

Rubber tapping

Also, indirectly, rubber industry is making money for Phuket by tourism. If you are taking a ride around Phuket, you will find hectares of rubber farm along the two roadsides, finding it very beautiful to look at. Tourists who've never seen rows and rows of trees will see it as a breathtaking sightseeing point of Phuket. Normally, rubber trees are green all year long, however, there will be a small period of time in December throughout January where the leaves change from green to red (maroon). This leads to the change of rubber tree industry, meaning that not only the physical rubber are bringing money for Phuket, the sight of it is also making the Phuket's income.

Rubber Trees in December

Rubber Tree Plantation in Phuket (summary)

In the early 1900s, rubber replaced tin as the main industry of the island and the natural latex was exported throughout the world. Rubber trees are a big feature of Phuket’s landscape. It used to cover 60% of Phuket's land and the rubber industries started long before tourism did. The first rubber tree was planted in 1898 and today, there are almost 2 million hectares of plantations in Thailand, one hectare contains 420 trees, which can produce 1260 kilograms of latex per day on average. Furthermore, more than 80% of rubber trees which are on the southern peninsula  are mostly at Phuket, meaning that Phuket is also the main rubber income for Thailand. 

Hectares of Rubber trees

You can recognize rubber plantations by the well-ordered rows of trees. If you wake up early enough, you can watch the rubber tappers at work. You can also organize a trip to a plantation with a tour agency. 

Rubber tappers at work

There are still rubber plantations on Phuket but as building continues, housing estates and other developments have replaced the rubber plantation. 

Phuket housing estates plan

How Rubber Plantation have reduced and become less popular as Phuket's income

The first rubber tree was believed to be introduced to Phuket in 1898 but the exact date is not definite. Rubber Plantation used to be the biggest income for Phuket, when it was first became popular, it replaces the tin mining industry, and therefore the Chinese immigrants were in need of new jobs. Furthermore, soon after the rubber plantation became popular, the Muslim-Malayan began to settle in Phuket to work, turning the rubber plantation into a huge success. Rubber tree plantation extended all over Phuket, the most common type of rubber tree was Para rubber tree.

Rubber Tree plantation with pineapple plantation

As the world develops, Phuket made a name for itself with the blue ocean, the islands around Phuket, the green forest. The name of Phuket spreads and attracts travelers from all over the world. Tourism industry spread rapidly throughout the island, with the large business of resorts and popular places established Phuket Town and Patong; tourism started to replace rubber plantation. Phuket is being intensely developed, with many new hotels, apartments, and houses under construction, rubber tree plantation have reduced due to the small amount of space own, with more people moving into Phuket, there is barely space for more rubber plantation. Also, one of the reasons of the decline of rubber plantation may be that the owners of rubber plantation might have seen the opportunity of more income from tourism or the increase price on the land making them sell the land and change jobs.

Luxurious Resorts in Phuket for Tourists

However, there are still a number of owners still doing the rubber plantation business and with the convenience of air travels, rubber products are exported to other countries, they can still earn quite an amount of money and rubber plantation is still making Phuket's income and still remains a resource for Phuket, and today Thailand is the world's biggest producer of rubber.

Dry latex sheets

Summary Of History Of Phuket

History Of Phuket

Phuket has a long history of different foreigners that came into the island to settle down. Phuket was founded in the first century BC by a colonist from India. It was used to refer as ‘Jang Si Lang’ which later became ‘Junk Ceylon’. Economically, Phuket has rich resources so it attracts the explorers, traders etc. to come and take its abundance, and some, to settle.

Sea Gypsies In Phuket

Sea Gypsies are the very first ones to settle in Phuket and they can be seen on the coastal areas in present day; the oldest ones are located at Rawai. As more and more people settle in Phuket, they started to record their history and started to build. 

Two Heroines of Phuket

When time passed, more villages were built. Two centuries ago, a story of two Heroines were told until this day; the sisters that protected the island of Phuket; they are extremely important to the islanders and this legend stays forever at their monument located in Thepkasattri Road, Thalang. 

In additional, at the same time, extensive tin mining attracts thousands of Chinese Labourers to Phuket and their influences still remains. Nowadays, tin mining has become less viable after tin prices dropped late in the century. However, rubber trees have replaced the tin industries and rubber tree farms can be seen all over the island and remains as one of an important source of income. 

Model of Tin mining in Phuket 

Rubber Plantation in Phuket

Phuket Old Town

Another extremely important source of income is tourism, with the increase of international tourists and the convenience of air travel, tourism became the main income, jobs in Phuket has revolved around tourism and the companies haven’t stopped expanding. 

Patong Nightlife

In daytime, tourists explore around Phuket, sightseeing the beaches, the nature and the Chinese influenced town, Phuket Old Town, nonetheless, in night time tourists most likely will visit the famous Patong, with countless of nightclubs and bars Patong was nicknamed “A place that never sleeps”.  

Another major recent history of Phuket was the tsunami, in December 2004, that caused the death of at least 250 people on Phuket alone. Phuket soon recovered from the disaster but some physical damages still remains and the people will never forget what has happened.

Aftermath Of 2004 tsunami in Phuket