From over 200 000 ha in 2005-06, rubber plantations covered nearly 300 000 ha in the following year and 522 088 ha in February 2013.7 While the bulk of planted rubber is currently located in the south, since the mid-2000s, new plantations, developed almost entirely by companies receiving investment incentives, have quickly expanded in northern Myanmar along the Chinese border to supply the Chinese domestic market (TNI, 2012). The uplands in Kachin and Shan states have been transformed by the expansion of large-scale rubber plantations. However, smallholders with less than 8 ha of rubber plantations still constitute 90% of the total number of rubber growers while entrepreneurs with rubber estates larger than 16 ha account for only 1% of the growers (Thein, 2012).