Secretariat Update – February 2020

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.

PRESS RELEASE

Global Rubber Industry kickstarts a plan for equitable distribution of costs and benefits of sustainability in their supply chain

Singapore, 14 July 2022: Members of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), who represent 55% of the rubber value chain, convened their annual General Assembly yesterday, where they defined and charted out a path for a concept they call shared responsibility. This concept acknowledges the lack of equity in the natural rubber supply chain and charts out a mechanism where the costs and benefits of the platform’s sustainability initiatives will be equitably distributed across all actors within the supply chain.

To this end, GPSNR members passed a resolution that binds them to a shared responsibility framework with 3 pillars – Shared Investments, Value Transfer & Target setting, and Knowledge & Data sharing – which will help share the costs and benefits across all actors in the value chain. Each stakeholder group has a different role to play to contribute to a sustainable natural rubber sector and within the three pillars. By the third quarter of 2023, each of the three pillars will be in the testing, implementation or pilot stage of their specific goals.

According to GPSNR director Stefano Savi, “Systemic change does not happen overnight. While we have been putting together pillars on the sustainability side of our vision, this is our first pillar that also requires commitment to an equitable supply chain. With this shared responsibility framework, parties from across the natural rubber value chain are agreeing to take accountability for sustainability in an equitable and fair manner. As we work to translate this to actionable outcomes, I hope more stakeholders will join us, and existing ones will be inspired to accelerate the process of changing our supply chain.’’

In addition to voting on resolutions like the shared responsibility framework, GPSNR members also voted in a guidance for implementation of the policy framework that they all abide by, which includes some stringent commitments on deforestation and human rights. They also voted on some procedural resolutions on their statutes and elected representatives to the 2022-2023 Executive Committee, which comprises representatives from each of the membership categories.

Access the Shared Responsibility Framework here.

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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