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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 12:07 pm
Time: 12:07 pm
Results for rubber plantations
2 results foundAuthor: Verité Title: Rubber Production in Liberia: An Exploratory Assessment of Living and Working Conditions, with Special Attention to Forced Labor Summary: With support from the U.S. Department of Labor, Verité carried out research on labor conditions in the supply chains of ten goods in seven countries from 2009 through 2011. Research was carried out on the production of shrimp in Bangladesh; Brazil-nuts, cattle, corn, and peanuts in Bolivia; sugar in the Dominican Republic; coffee in Guatemala; fish in Indonesia; rubber in Liberia; and tuna in the Philippines. The following report is based on research on living and working conditions in the rubber sector of Liberia, with special attention to indicators of forced labor. Since the establishment of the Firestone plantation in 1926, rubber has been the cornerstone of the Liberian economy; even in post-conflict Liberia, this commodity remains the country‟s most important cash crop.1 Rubber trees are cultivated on large company-owned plantations, where workers collect rubber year-round for a fixed salary; and also on small-scale farms that belong to households and individuals. This report focuses on rubber cultivated on large-scale commercial plantations that are not part of the Bridgestone/Firestone complex. Rubber has a long and controversial history in Liberia. Observers largely agree that the sector has served as a much-needed generator of state revenues and a creator of formal, salaried employment in a country with a largely subsistence agricultural economy. However, there has been persistent concern and tension around the terms of the contracts signed between the Liberian state and rubber companies, on the one hand, and the living and working conditions on Liberian plantations, on the other. It was determined that Verité‟s research in Liberia should be an exploratory study with flexible research objectives, which evolved into a study of current-day living and working conditions, with special attention to indicators of forced labor, on two Liberian rubber plantations: (1) the Liberian Agricultural Company‟s (LAC) plantation in Grand Bassa County; and (2) the Cocopa Rubber Company‟s plantation in Nimba County. The ILO‟s core labor conventions and Liberian labor law served as the framework for the study. Details: Amherst, MA: Verité , 2012(?). Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 23, 2013 at: http://www.verite.org/sites/default/files/images/Research%20on%20Working%20Conditions%20in%20the%20Liberia%20Rubber%20Sector__9.16.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Liberia URL: http://www.verite.org/sites/default/files/images/Research%20on%20Working%20Conditions%20in%20the%20Liberia%20Rubber%20Sector__9.16.pdf Shelf Number: 128092 Keywords: Forced Labor (Liberia)Human Rights AbusesRubber Plantations |
Author: Lowes, Sara Title: Blood Rubber: The Effects of Labor Coercion on Institutions and Culture in the DRC Summary: Abstract: We examine how historical exposure to extractive institutions affects long-run development in the case of the Congo Free State (CFS). The CFS granted concessions to private companies that used violent tactics to collect rubber. Local chiefs were co-opted into supporting the rubber regime, and individuals struggled to fulfill mandated quotas as natural rubber became increasingly scarce. We use a geographic regression discontinuity design along the former concession boundaries to show that greater exposure to extractive institutions causes significantly worse education, wealth and health outcomes. We then use survey and experimental data collected along a former concession boundary to examine how the effects of extractive institutions persist through local institutional quality and cultural norms. Consistent with their historical co-option by the concession companies, we find that chiefs within the former concessions are of lower quality and less accountable to their constituents. However, we find that individuals within the concessions are more trusting and have stronger norms of redistribution. The results demonstrate how historical events of short duration can have long-lasting effects on institutions and cultural norms. Details: Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, Department of Economics, 2017. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 25, 2019 at: https://economics.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj9386/f/lowes_montero_rubber.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Congo, Democratic Republic URL: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/emontero/files/lowes_montero_rubber.pdf Shelf Number: 157065 Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo Environmental Crime Extractive Industry Forced Labor Labor Exploitation Rubber Plantations |