Smallholders Representation Working Group Update – August 2019

Bringing the platform to smallholders – launching workshops in 5 different countries and regions to understand how smallholders could be integrated in the rubber platform governance to help design a pathway to sustainable natural rubber production.

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Smallholders account for 85% of world rubber production. To come up with sustainable rubber production solutions, it is crucial for GPSNR to include the voice of rubber smallholders into our governance model. Realizing the challenges in language and cultural differences, the power game between different players in the rubber value chain, the perception of and by smallholders, the working group has decided to organize regional workshops. The 5 workshops to be held in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Africa (TBC) and Latin America (TBC) will be tailor made to ensure that smallholders can play a meaningful role within GPSNR.  A combination of smallholders, smallholder organizations, smallholder representation working group members (reflecting the mix of the group members) and, where possible, a representative of the GPSNR Strategy & Objectives Working Group will come together to join those regional workshops. Main aim of the workshop is to be a 2-way communication platform for conducting research, with the farmer’s needs at the center.

The primary objectives of the workshops will be to:

  • Understand the local needs and motivations of the smallholder farmers;
  • Understand and recommend solutions to the barriers for smallholders and their representative organizations to join and actively participate in the GPSNR;
  • Observe and explain the interaction and chemistry between farmers and representative organizations.

Translation and moderation will be available to ensure a smooth communication.

Those first 5 workshops are to be held between October and November 2019 and possibly extended to other regions in a second step.  

If you are a rubber smallholder or an organization that represents rubber smallholders, promoting the interests of rubber smallholders, having a mission/vision that aligns with GPSNR’s 12 principles, believing in a bottom-up approach as a solution to solve the issues, please feel free to contact the GPSNR Secretariat.  For more information, contact kobrat@gpsnr.org.

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Message from the Director: Updates on COVID-19

Dear Members,

Since our last update to you, the COVID-19 situation has escalated into a global pandemic, with Europe and the US some of the hardest hit areas. The implications for us as a multi-stakeholder platform, are many. Today, I am taking the opportunity to update you on how we have addressed the issues within our control.

Secretariat Operations
For the health and welfare of our staff, we have instituted a work from home recommendation. We are also complying with the local government travel advisory to defer all non-essential travel. Rest assured that these measures will have minimal disruption to the operations of the Secretariat, and we remain only an email or a teleconference call away.

Working Groups
All our Working Groups remain active and continue to make progress in their respective areas of focus despite the situation. They are taking the extra time to enhance their deliverables, and I am confident that we will have many sound proposals and resolutions to consider and approve as a Platform. I encourage you to read the updates on the News and Publications page of our website, so that you are aware of the achievements to date of our Strategy & Objectives and Smallholders Representation Working Groups.

General Assembly
The severity of this pandemic has caused inevitable delays to our 2nd General Assembly (GA). As the safety and wellbeing of our members is our utmost priority, we will not be able to hold the GA within the first half of the year as we had anticipated. Nevertheless, the Executive Committee is in ongoing discussions on plans for the GA, and, where necessary, will assist all Working Groups to finetune their proposals to ensure a smooth and productive GA. 

Finally, I would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued contribution and teamwork even in these trying times. I also appreciate your understanding and patience as we decide on the best way forward for the Platform in these unprecedented times. 

Our thoughts are with the natural rubber farmers and producers, and their families, whose livelihoods are being mostly impacted by COVID-19. To those whose family, friends or co-workers have been directly affected by the virus, our thoughts go out to you.

I urge you all to stay safe, stay vigilant, and stay positive.

All my support,

Stefano Savi
Director

GPSNR Staff March 26, 2020

Natural Rubber Supply Chain comes together to build unique sustainability assurance benchmark

PRESS RELEASE

Natural Rubber Supply Chain comes together to build unique sustainability assurance benchmark 

Singapore, 20 June 2024: Members of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), who represent almost 60% of the value chain, have agreed on an industry wide assurance system in an Extraordinary General Assembly held yesterday. Through this agreement, the natural rubber industry now has a standardized stage-by-stage process through which companies can commit to, implement and verify strong sustainability standards and practices in their operations.

GPSNR members’ stage-by-stage progression towards verified sustainability assurance 

The Assurance system is currently being piloted by some volunteer manufacturers and processors until August 2024. Concurrently, three of its four mandatory elements have also been put up on a public consultation to seek comments and additional inputs that will help finetune the different aspects of the model. The feedback collected via the pilots and the public consultation will be integrated into the assurance model and put up for members’ review at the Annual General Assembly in October 2024. By 2025, all GPSNR members will be using this model in their operations. 

The model covers four mandatory elements – an Assurance Assessment checklist which will spell out the minimum requirements that members will have to meet on all aspects of the GPSNR policy framework, an Assurance Protocol which will provide guidelines to external assessors, a Remediation Protocol that includes actions and timelines to close the gaps identified by the assessors and a Members Journey or broad timeline to achieve these requirements.  Additionally, the model also includes supplementary tools that will support members in putting the assurance model into practice, like a due diligence framework and national risk assessments, amongst others.

‘’Having a system that can verify and cross check the implementation of our members’ commitments has always been our overarching goal at GPSNR. With the voting in of the Assurance Model structure, our members have demonstrated their intent to deliver on their sustainability promises. I am especially proud of the multistakeholder nature in which the assurance model has been agreed on, keeping in mind the practical position of each member category.’’ said Stefano Savi, GPSNR’s Platform Director.

GPSNR’s membership is meeting next week in Singapore to iron out the details of the minimum requirements spelt out in the Assurance Model checklist, the nature of the claims that can be made, the feedback from the pilots and the assurance protocol for third party assessors.

END

About GPSNR: 

GPSNR is an international membership driven platform set up to define sustainability for the natural rubber value chain. It brings together various stakeholders to a common ground based on fairness, equity and environmental sustainability. More on sustainablenaturalrubber.org

For more information, please contact:

Bani Bains

Communications Manager

Email: bani.bains@gpsnr.org

Ph: +65 97268165

GPSNR Secretariat June 20, 2024

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Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber

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