Addressing the Impact of COVID-19 on Natural Rubber Smallholders

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Many are calling these “unprecedented times”, and undeniably so. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world many firsts – from the closing of international borders to country-wide lockdowns and quarantines, and extreme social distancing measures applied to everyday activities such as exercising and grocery shopping. In this sense, many of the impacts of COVID-19 have been unprecedented. 

‘Unprecedented’, however, does not necessarily translate into ‘unexpected’. This is especially true for a significant link of the natural rubber value chain: the millions of smallholders and farm workers that supply the world with around 85% of its natural rubber. These smallholders, seasonal workers and their families are some of the most vulnerable people within the natural rubber sector, living in poverty and without adequate access to social services. Poor diversification of farmers’ incomes means that farmers are solely dependent on tapping rubber trees to make a living. When a pandemic occurs and global demand for natural rubber falls, it comes as no surprise that smallholders are the hardest hit. 

The Equity sub-Working Group was formed to look into the issue of equity in the natural rubber value chain and to define what GPSNR’s role will be in promoting equity along the supply chain. It is chaired by Robert Meyer (Halcyon Agri) and co-chaired by Hendrike Braun-Issa (GIZ). The sub-Group has, in its first few calls, recognized the importance of addressing the impact that COVID-19 has on the supply chain, in particular the natural rubber smallholders. In view of this, discussions have been centered around producing a set of short-term recommendations to counter the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. These recommendations are particularly aimed at supporting small-scale natural rubber farmers and their families.

The International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), represented by Secretary-General Salvatore Pinizzotto, is also participating in the sub-Group discussions to provide advice in the area of cooperation with Governments. 

Along with the short-term recommendations, the sub-Group is also looking at long-term efforts to address the underlying systemic issues, and are carrying out a study to inform the Platform on the subjects of Living Wage and Living Income.

Improving the capacity and livelihoods of smallholders is just one of the strategies undertaken by GPSNR. It is equally important for the other players in the industry to advance GPSNR’s vision of a sustainable natural rubber value chain. The Policy Toolbox Working Group continues to finalize the proposed member policy requirements and reporting requirements, with consultation from all member categories. Meanwhile, the Traceability and Transparency Working Group is focused on acquiring a better understanding of tools to achieve greater traceability and transparency within supply chains. Both groups will be aligning on key issues such as supply chain risk assessment.

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Stretching the conversation about sustainable natural rubber

By 2050, the number of cars in the world is expected to more than double as urban population growth and rising incomes lead to increased demand for mobility. This has led to louder calls for a more environmentally friendly, energy efficient transport sector.

But what’s been missing from the conversation on sustainable transport so far is a key material that cars and other vehicles literally run on: rubber.

Around 70 per cent of the world’s supply of natural rubber is used to manufacture the wheels that move cars and enable airplanes to take off and land. In the last two decades, the consumption of natural rubber, which is primarily produced in the world’s tropical regions, has been increasing at a steady rate of 5 per cent every year.

Ideal climate and soil conditions in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have made Southeast Asia the epicentre of global rubber production. Ninety per cent of the 13.960 million tonnes of rubber tapped last year came from this part of the world. The last 10 years have also witnessed the expansion of industrial rubber practices in Cambodia and Laos, after land in China and Vietnam began to deteriorate as a result of large-scale rubber production.

On a recent trip to Bintan, an Indonesian island located an hour from Singapore’s shores, Eco-Business got a first-hand look at the reality of smallholder rubber farming in Asia and the challenges of charting a sustainable path for rubber.

Although natural rubber has not received as much attention as fellow tropical commodity palm oil, it creates a similar set of social and environmental problems, from contributing to rapid deforestation to a history of land grabs and human rights violations in the Mekong.

However, unlike palm oil, which is mainly produced in large estates owned by big, family-owned corporations, close to 85 per cent of global rubber is produced by smallholders in Asia, making traceability a major issue in the industry’s quest for sustainability.

“Natural rubber is a crucial element of tyre production, driving the importance of its sustainability,” William Dusseau, manager of technical relations at Cooper tyre and rubber company, told Eco-Business. “A coordinated, universal and standard industry approach is the way to drive solutions in establishing and promoting sustainable natural rubber practices.”

He added that the launch of the Global Platform on Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), which took place last Thursday at the World Rubber Summit in Singapore, was a significant step in developing and maintaining sustainable rubber standards.

Members of the new platform include major brand tyre companies such as Cooper, Michelin, Pirelli, and Bridgestone and global car manufacturers including BMW Group, Ford Motor Company and General Motors.

GPSNR also includes international non-profit and civil society organisations such as Mighty Earth, Birdlife International and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

According to Jean Bakouma, head of the Forest Program at WWF-France, since the rubber value chain is primarily driven by buyers, tyre manufacturers hold the greatest leverage for improving both the socioeconomic and environmental performance of natural rubber production.

“A robust sustainability policy that is thoroughly implemented by tyre manufacturers must consider sustainable natural rubber as a natural and responsible way to protect forests with high conservation value and high carbon stock, as well as foster other environmental services,” he said.

GPSNR Staff March 27, 2019
Members

Embracing our Shared Responsibility: GPSNR’s newest Working Group (Members Version)

Before the second General Assembly on 23 September 2020, the GPSNR Executive Committee had approved the creation of a Shared Responsibility Working Group that would be tasked to define the principles of shared responsibility for GPSNR.

The term ‘shared responsibility’ is relatively new to the sustainability scene, and as such, there is currently no commonly accepted definition for it. In general, shared responsibility is a value-driven concept which recognizes that supply chains are structurally imbalanced in terms of value and benefit, risk, burden of compliance, climate change impacts, power of negotiation, and access to information and resources. A shared responsibility approach strives for value, benefits, risks and improvement investments to be equitably distributed across all actors within the supply chain.​

In order to establish the foundational work that would enable the creation of the Shared Responsibility Working Group, the Executive Committee formed a Task Force comprising several of its members. Over a series of weekly calls, the Task Force has developed a Terms of Reference (ToR) and a set of Guiding Principles to inform the work of the new Shared Responsibility Working Group.

It is envisioned that the Shared Responsibility Working Group will draw from the Guiding Principles for Shared Responsibility (currently being developed by the Executive Committee’s Shared Responsibility Task Force), as well as the GPSNR Equity Definition and the studies launched by the Equity Working Group, to develop an implementation framework for the platform with respect to shared responsibility.

GPSNR is now looking for members interested in joining the Shared Responsibility Working Group, to register with the Secretariat. If you are interested to join the SR WG, please email Aidan (aidan@gpsnr.org) to indicate your interest. The deadline for expressing interest is Wednesday 24th February, after which the WG will nominate co-chairs and kickoff as soon as possible.

The Shared Responsibility Working Group Terms of Reference can be found here.

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GPSNR Staff February 16, 2021
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