Rubber is in need of many pesticides and fertilizers, which can negatively affect the soil and water. For example, rubber plantations increase the risk of landslides occurring due to well managed terrain gully formation under the rubber plantation. Rubber plantations also play a role in soil erosion if rubber plantations are not being taken care of properly. In addition, many rubber dominating areas have a tendency of water level depletion because of the widespread obstruction of sunlight under the rubber plantations (Panda & Sarkar, 2020).

Many rubber plantations face some serious ethical issues such as unsafe working conditions, a lack of any safety standards, and an inadequate use of toxic chemicals. Rubber plantations tend to be dealt with smallholders’ livelihoods, meaning that they are not with bigger farmland and big companies. In addition, there is much discrimination amongst the people who work for the rubber plantations such as gender inequality, child exploitation, and problems with migrant workers. Rubber industries face these several challenges because of the high input costs to keep rubber estates running smoothly to make high-quality rubber, and rubber takes much longer to create compared to other crops. In short, there are many plantations that are violating human labor rights by having workers work unnecessarily long hours, discrimination, lack of safety, and no job security (Agrigate Global, 2022).