GPSNR Working Groups Update: October 2022

Share This Post

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

The assurance model taskforce, which sits under the umbrella of this working group, worked on establishing KPIs, GPSNR and Company targets, and tasking the KPIs to other working groups, categories and members. Its other subgroup on risk is currently working on a proposal for the definition of polygons in the EU Deforestation Regulation based on a request from GPSNR member ETRMA. Th subgroup also has two new co-chairs – Maggie Fitzherbert from ZSL and Ayako Itoh from Bridgestone.

Smallholder Representation Working Group

After completing its first round of pilot agroforestry workshops in Indonesia, the working group has its next round planned in Cambodia starting this month. Subsequently, they are preparing for country-based focus group discussions on the Smallholders Policy Equivalent and for the GPSNR-HCSA Smallholder Toolkit Field Trials. They are also working on processing smallholder applications from Liberia and Cambodia.

Policy Toolbox Working Group

The group is working on finalizing the TORs for the Year 1 Reporting Review to be conducted in the first quarter of next year. They are also assessing if any changes to reporting framework and its details (i.e. process, extensions, questions) are needed based on the Year 1 Reporting Review results.

Capacity Building Working Group

The group is currently evaluating proposals to appoint a software developer for the second phase of the GPSNR Knowledge Sharing Platform. They have kicked off the Disease Fighting Project with SNV-IRRI in Indonesia, after having recently completed the first milestone of the SNV-Proforest GAP coaching in the country. They continue to seek members’ funding for capacity building projects in Indonesia (second stream of disease fighting) and Cote d’Ivoire (training centres). To know more, you can find the project details here.

 

Shared Responsibility Working Group

The group is working on the deliverables discussed for each of its sub working groups during the in-person meetings, and will present findings to the membership on 15th November 2022.

More To Explore

Statement by the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber on Proposed new EU Deforestation Regulation

The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) affirms the commitment of its membership toward deforestation-free natural rubber supply chains and acknowledges the importance of engaging with regulators to support its ambitions. In considering how to address the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products placed on the EU market, we urge EU regulators to continue to engage with the rubber and tyre sector to ensure that the due diligence requirements ultimately deliver social and environmental benefits, including eliminating deforestation from rubber supply chains and improving smallholder livelihoods. Adopting a risk-based approach at jurisdictional or landscape level with mitigation and impact driven capacity building actions would promote inclusive and scalable progress in the smallholder context, whilst effectively addressing the goal of preventing products derived from deforestation caused by natural rubber from being placed on EU markets.

In this respect, GPSNR believes that any regulation addressing deforestation in the natural rubber supply chain, including the present proposal, must align with the following factors to be transformative:

• Sustainable natural rubber must promote equity for smallholders. Smallholders represent 85% of natural rubber production globally. The design of any regulation relating to natural rubber must consider and mitigate any potential negative impacts on smallholder farmers while aiming to improve the livelihoods of farmers who adopt sustainable practices.

• Considering the complexity of the natural rubber supply chain, a risk-based approach that has jurisdictional traceability as its foundation offers a practical and effective approach to addressing deforestation. While advances in traceability are being made in the natural rubber sector, it is currently infeasible to conduct farm-to-factory tracing in all cases. A risk-based approach would include requiring some farm-to-factory tracing where risk is non-negligible, but not in every natural rubber supply chain.

• Capacity building to promote sustainable practices, for smallholders and plantations alike, is an essential tool to curb deforestation in the natural rubber supply chain, so any regulation should prioritize funding to enhance capacity building.

GPSNR Secretariat September 7, 2022
News

Introducing More Ways to Communicate about GPSNR

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the entire natural rubber supply chain. It has triggered car and tire manufacturing companies to operate with a reduced workforce, or temporarily halt production plants altogether. Strict lockdown measures have caused a drastic fall in the sales of consumer tires across Europe. Global demand for natural rubber has dropped, the effects of which will be felt by the 6 million natural rubber smallholders in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Many smallholders live in poverty, depending on daily wages to feed their families. Their situations will only be exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. Already, the Association of Producers and Processing Plants of the State of São Paulo (APABOR) has estimated that for Brazil alone, the subsistence of around 100,000 natural rubber farmers and their direct relatives is at risk.

While COVID-19 exposes the vulnerabilities of smallholders, it also reveals the potential they have to be agents of change and drivers of transformation. The pandemic has reminded us of the connections between human health, resilient landscapes, economic stability and livelihoods; the post COVID-19 world is more likely to devote greater attention to tackling environmental, social and economic impacts of its many supply chains. Smallholders, who produce 85% of the world’s natural rubber supply, are thus key to advancing GPSNR’s vision of a fair, equitable and environmentally sound rubber value chain.

One of GPSNR’s major outcomes for this year has been welcoming our new smallholder members. As of today, a total of 27 smallholder members (with additions from Myanmar) have joined GPSNR. The inclusion of smallholders into the fabric of the Platform provides them the opportunity to drive the agenda for sustainable natural rubber and, in the long-term, realize the social, economic and environmental benefits that sustainability brings. 

We encourage GPSNR members to communicate this outcome through the communication channels of their respective organizations. To this end, we launched a quarterly Members’ Communication Toolkit which outlines the suggested key message and provides ready-to-use content for communicating the message. GPSNR Members may access the Members’ Communication Toolkit for Q2 2020 in the GPSNR Forum.  

More is being done to fully include these smallholders in the Working Groups and Executive Committee. The Smallholders Representation Working Group continues with its efforts in designing a programme for onboarding smallholders prior to the General Assembly. In the meantime, some of our new smallholder members are already actively involved in Working Group discussions. Additionally, having recognized the urgency to address the impacts of COVID-19 on smallholders, the Equity sub-Working Group is developing a position paper on the issue.

GPSNR Staff April 26, 2020

© 2022 All rights reserved

Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber

Scroll to Top