FEATURE - Rubber Trees For Tyre Industry Shrink China Rainforests CHINA: April 8, 2008 XISHUANGBANNA - On a map on ecologist Liu Wenjie's computer, the subtropical southern tip of China's Yunnan province is slowly turning from green to red. Rubber plantations -- shown in red on Liu's computer screen -- have supplanted nearly all the low-lying forest in the prefecture of Xishuangbanna and are now starting to encroach on the highlands.