Rubber Plantations There are eight large-scale rubber plantations established in the country. These plantations are owned and operated by foreign business interests. They include: Firestone Plantations Company in Harbel, Margibi County, Cavalla Rubber Corporation in Maryland County, the Cocopa Rubber Plantation (Nimba County), the African Fruit Company (now Sinoe Rubber Corporation in Sinoe County), the B.F. Goodrich (now Gutrich Rubber Plantation in Bomi County), the Salala Rubber Corporation (Bong County) and the Liberian Agriculture Company (Grand Bassa County). These companies have cleared more than 57,000 hectares of primary forest for rubber plantations.
The conversion of huge areas of once diversified humid forest ecosystems into monocultures focusing on only one species, Hevea brasiliensis, is of ecological concern, as it has led to biodiversity loss. The tropical ecosystem is characterized by both high species richness in many taxa and complex biotic interactions among components of various species. This richness provides for a positive mutual interaction among species that a single species rubber plantation cannot provide.
As such, plants found in forests adjacent to monoculture plantations depending on pollinator species are threatened with extinction by the loss of the pollinators that often depend on the natural forests for their survival. By the same token, pollinators that are specialized on specific plant diversity could die out if the plant is removed. Maintaining a plant pollinator interaction in the tropics is of utmost importance since tropical forests are sensitive to extinction of pollinators.
Figure 19: Rubber Plantation in Firestone at Harbel It is therefore necessary that corrective actions be undertaken to:
Leave enclaves of natural forest on high elevations and along waterways;
