PUBLIC CONSULTATION: GPSNR’s Assurance System – Round 2

We can draw parallels to the coffee industry, which similarly comprises small plantation owners and more profitable downstream actors. In his recent sustainability report on the coffee industry, economist Jeffrey Sachs’ proposal for a global fund to fill the financial gaps for sustainability investments in coffee producing regions garnered vivid discussion.  

Currently, low and unpredictable rubber prices are a constraint to smallholders who produce the bulk of global rubber output. Transparency is critical in the purchasing process, and this kind of disruption typically comes hand in hand with embracing new strategies. 

Under the purview of the Strategy & Objectives Working Group, capacity building and extension services have been identified as potential measures to mitigate the root causes of the social and environmental impact from the natural rubber supply market. Implementing these at scale for the whole industry will require considerable financial investment.   

With the above considerations in mind, GPSNR is exploring new approaches to funding that would not be borne by a single segment of the industry, but in a manner incorporating the spirit of our shared responsibility. 

Enterprise Singapore organized an industry meeting on 14 January 2020, and invited GPSNR and Singapore Exchange to better understand the available options of an e-trading platform that could contribute to our funds. The meeting also discussed what could be the options, through GPSNR, to increase the uptake of the e-trading platform.

Tapping the vast potential of digitalization could present an exciting avenue of possibilities for GPSNR to better advance our vision of a fair, equitable and environmentally sound rubber value chain.      

The meeting was initiated by representatives from Enterprise Singapore, and panel speakers comprised representatives from GPSNR, Singapore Exchange and HeveaConnect. Participants included GPSNR members as well as other Natural Rubber buyers, producers, processors and traders .

The Member Consultation period for the proposed GPSNR Policy Components and Baseline Reporting Requirements closed on 3 July 2020. All comments received as part of the consultation exercise were discussed by the Policy Toolbox Working Group over several rounds of calls. There has also been healthy dialogue between various membership categories and the Working Group on the alignment of the Policy Components. 

Meanwhile, pilot testing for the Baseline Reporting Requirements is in progress, with 10 GPSNR member volunteers participating in the exercise. The Secretariat will be interviewing each of the volunteers in the coming weeks to gather feedback on their experience in submitting the Baseline Reporting Requirements data. More updates will be shared in due course.

At this stage, finalized versions of the Policy Components and related documents have been submitted by the Policy Toolbox Working Group to the Executive Committee for review and further discussion at the Executive Committee level. The Policy Components will then be brought to the GPSNR General Assembly for voting.

The formulation of Policy Components is a critical piece in fulfilling GPSNR’s vision of a fair, equitable and environmentally sound natural rubber value chain. 

All GPSNR members, at the time of joining the Platform, committed to this very vision, as well as 12 principles of sustainable natural rubber as defined by GPSNR. The Policy Components were developed to provide more specificity to the 12 Sustainable Natural Rubber Principles. Within the proposed Policy Components are key commitment details to no deforestation/ conversion/ degradation, upholding human rights, supply chain transparency and monitoring and reporting. 

If approved, the Policy Components will act as a clear and guiding framework for GPSNR company members to establish or update supply chain commitments through their natural rubber purchasing policies. 

Adopting a policy allows a company to signal that the issues covered by the policy are important to the company, and that resources and capacities will be dedicated to addressing the issues in order to comply with the policy. Policies, while illuminating the goals that a company is working towards, also enables these commitments to be channelled upstream to suppliers and downstream to buyers, with the potential to transform the entire supply chain.

Following the Policy Toolbox Working Group’s observation that common questions and concerns were raised by GPSNR members during the Members Consultation period, the Working Group has developed a supplementary FAQ document to provide detailed responses to address these concerns, in a bid to provide greater clarity on the Policy Components. These will be circulated to the GPSNR membership in August, along with all other proposed resolutions.