Firestone
Rubber Company:
Rubber
Tappers, Forest Movements and Indigenous People
This week’s readings were on forest
and indigenous people of highlands of Zomia between the borders of Thailand and
Burma. We read articles on the forest people of Northern Thailand and how social
and environmental drivers such as gender, religion, classicism, environment and
science influenced their movements. We also read series of articles about
rubber tappers in Liberia and Brazil exploring their socioeconomic conditions,
environmental and health implications and resistance for change and
transformation.
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
established the largest rubber plantation in Liberia in 1926 during the presidency
of Charles D. B. King the 17th president of Liberia. Firestone
started the exportation of latex from Liberia during the presidency of Edwin
Barclay. The Government of Liberia and Firestone signed a concession contract
in 1926 for the production of latex by Firestone on 1 million acres of land,
which constitute approximately 4% of the total territory and about 10% of all
arable land. During WWII, the US Government in 1942 built the Robertfield
International Airport (RIA) in Liberia. At that time, the airport was the
largest in Africa and was used by the US for emergency landing for NASA Space
Shuttle, deployment of US forces and fighter jets and the exportation of
natural rubber that was instrumental in the war against the Axis Powers.
Rubber tappers at the Firestone rubber
plantation are Liberian and mostly rural people who were employed to work. The
company invest very little amount in infrastructural development, health and
sanitation, and inadequate safety procedures. Currently, Firestone is the only
international corporation that employs a large number of Liberians. The company
has about 14,000 employees most of whom are rubber tappers, who are required to
tap 750 rubber trees each day at an amount of $3.80 per hour. Rubber tappers
are provided housing by the company that have been in existence since the 1930s
with high exposure rates to carcinogenic substances such as asbestos and
chemical pesticides. Workers are forcefully mandated to complete their daily
quotas of their work without which their wage is decrease to account for trees
that were not tapped. Rubber tappers also have to transport raw latex weighting
about 70 to 140 lbs from 1 to 2 miles.
According to environmental impact
assessment survey conducted by the Government of Liberia, chemical pesticides used
by Firestone on trees are released into local water resources causing several
environmental and health impacts on local and rural residence.
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