Introducing GPSNR Topic Talks! Webinar Series (Members Version)

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GPSNR Topic Talks! is a new webinar series organised by the GPSNR Secretariat and presented by GPSNR members. The webinars will take place over three Tuesdays in October and November, and will cover three main themes around sustainability and the global natural rubber supply chain.

The first Topic Talk, a presentation by Philippe Thaler from CIRAD on the implications of EU legislation on imported deforestation, took place just yesterday night. The webinar was well attended by GPSNR members from various membership categories. In his presentation, Philippe covered the current status of EU commitments towards avoiding imported deforestation and how France has started implementing its policy. He also elaborated on the demand from French institutions to CIRAD to assess compliance with this policy in natural rubber. He concluded with some examples of how GPSNR can demonstrate the platform’s positive impacts in this context. The Q&A session afterward allowed for a deeper dive into the topic, as well as opening up some interesting questions on the use of alternative tools apart from compliance and assurance that can also help stakeholders progress towards their zero deforestation goals.

The next Topic Talks will focus on the themes of smallholder solutions as well as assurance and smallholders. More details on the upcoming webinars are provided in the subsequent section of this article.

Smallholder Solutions: From Income Diversification to Landscape Approaches

3 November 2020 | 7PM (GMT+8)   

Click here to register

This webinar consists of two presentations:

“A landscape-level approach to inclusion and capacity building for rubber smallholders”

Presented by: Kirana Megatara, Proforest & SNV

This presentation is based on experience from the Kelola-Sendang project in South Sumatra, where SNV, with Proforest support, worked with rubber smallholders in the context of a large jurisdictional initiative. New links were built between these groups and a crumb rubber factory buyer in the Kirana group, helping to streamline the supply chain and open channels of communication on sustainability issues.

“Exploring Smallholder Solutions in the Rubber Sector – The Processing and Sale of Rubberwood to Support Smallholder Financing in Indonesia”

Presented by: WWF with Financial Access

HeveaConnect, Target Corporation, and World Wildlife Fund are engaged in finding solutions to enhance the production and trade of sustainable natural rubber. The three organizations came together in 2019 around the shared interest in understanding how the processing and sale of rubberwood might incentivize the adoption of sustainable practices by natural rubber smallholders and enhance their livelihoods. We enlisted the services of Financial Access to analyze the potential of rubberwood to serve as a mechanism to support smallholder financing in Indonesia. Although the scope of the analysis was limited to two provinces in Sumatra, the findings of this study could be used there and elsewhere in Indonesia to inform the development of sustainable natural rubber initiatives that include the processing and trade of rubberwood as one of several strategies to support equity in natural rubber supply chains.

Assurance and Smallholders: Learning from Existing Schemes

24 November | 7PM (GMT+8)

Click here to register

This webinar consists of two presentations:

“FSC Smallholder Certification Solutions”

Presented by: FSC

The presentation will cover FSC’s solutions for smallholders to become certified. First, an overview of the evaluation of certification solutions for smallholders will be given. FSC’s existing solutions will be covered, with a focus on the benefits for FSC Group Certification. Next, solutions in the pipeline will be covered, addressing the impact of pilot projects and highlighting success stories.

“PEFC, a system of choice for rubber smallholders”

Presented by: PEFC

Through a comprehensive explanation of PEFC, PEFC will elaborate further on their unique bottom-up approach in standard-setting and certification. Why and how this approach makes PEFC a system of choice for rubber smallholders and all companies involved in the natural rubber supply chain. They will also showcase current collaborative projects with their national members and companies to support smallholder producers. PEFC will explain how it will benefit GPSNR members and the work that GPSNR is engaged in.

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From Strategy to Implementation: Next Steps for Capacity Building

One of the key strategies identified by GPSNR to achieve our vision of a fair, equitable and environmentally sound natural rubber value chain is to ensure that there is capacity amongst smallholders and industrial plantations to adopt best practices in natural rubber production.  

In 2020, the Capacity Building Working Group, through various stakeholder interviews and Working Group discussions, proposed a set of country-specific capacity building activities for four countries as a start: Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand. In developing these strategies, the Working Group sought to first identify threats to the sustainable production of natural rubber within the different local contexts, as well as the underlying causes for these threats. From this initial research, the working group developed proposed capacity building actions, along with main objectives and rationales for each chosen action. The approach adopted by the Working Group in designing these actions is to allow for immediate engagement and implementation on the ground. 

Following the Executive Committee’s endorsement of the Working Group’s capacity building proposals, the Working Group will be conducting a sharing session for all GPSNR members, during which more details about each national capacity building strategy will be presented.

Recruiting Members to Capacity Building National Sub-Groups

Now that the capacity building strategies are in place, the Working Group is inviting interested GPSNR members to join the soon-to-be-created National Sub-Groups that will be mandated to oversee, guide and implement the national capacity building strategies and to promote GPSNR policies and initiatives.  

The development of the National Sub-Groups recognizes existing local capacity building initiatives in the rubber sector and their independence of GPSNR and aims to cooperate with local efforts and stakeholders to achieve mutually agreed outcomes.

GPSNR Staff January 27, 2021
News

Developing a GPSNR Assurance Model

Assurance is defined as demonstrable evidence that specified requirements relating to a product, process, system, person or body are fulfilled. In other words, thinking about Assurance is to ponder the question: how do we protect the credibility of our claim?

The Executive Committee (EC) has been working on an Assurance model concept since late 2019. Following the request for proposal put up in August 2019, an external consultant was engaged to conduct a review of the options for various Assurance Models that would support the desired outcomes of the Platform. In early 2020, the report from the consultant, which discussed existing approaches to Assurance and included recommendations for GPSNR’s approach to Assurance, was submitted to the EC. 

The EC considered the input from the report and expanded upon its findings by conducting a thorough benchmarking of existing Assurance model approaches. Following this exercise, the EC identified and defined several key characteristics that merit inclusion in GPSNR’s Assurance model concept.

In the process of developing these key characteristics, the EC also took into account the purpose, value and benefits of an Assurance model. 

A robust Assurance model would provide a credible and effective system to manage risks by supporting the achievement of sustainability impacts, focusing on accurate assessments of compliance, ensuring the effectiveness of its assurance strategies through good information management systems, and finding additional ways to create value for stakeholders.

A webinar will be held on Friday, 26 June 2020 to introduce GPSNR members to a proposed Assurance model concept.

A tabled summary of the process and timelines around the development of the Assurance model concept up until now is included below:

January 2020 Consultant report submitted to EC for review
January – February 2020 EC discussions
March 2020 Deep dive into Assurance model benchmark by EC sub-group
April 2020 EC agrees on basic characteristics to build Assurance model from
April – June 2020 Design, discussion and refinement within EC

GPSNR Staff June 24, 2020

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