Seeing Through to a Solution: Traceability and Transparency Tools and Technology Studies (Members Version)

PRESS RELEASE

Natural Rubber Supply Chain urges European Parliament not to amend essence of EUDR 

Singapore, 13 November 2024: As Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) convene to vote on 14th November on the proposed amendments to the EUDR, the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) urges them to provide legal certainty around the implementation timeline and not re-open the regulatory text.

Along with the European Tire and Rubber Manufacturers Association, GPSNR has written to the European Parliament earlier this month to ask MEPs to use the proposal for amendments solely to create certainty about the timeline and not change the substance of the regulation. 

GPSNR members represent almost 60% of the global NR demand and include OEMs, manufacturers of rubber products, producers and traders of natural rubber, smallholder farmers, and civil society. All these stakeholders have worked tirelessly and swiftly to comply with the regulation, whose original date of implementation is weeks away. 

Notwithstanding this, GPSNR believes MEPs have a key role in ensuring the European Commission uses the proposed additional 12 months for implementation to resolve the remaining issues, particularly the functioning of the information system and the necessary secondary legislation, including on the benchmarking system as well as completing the planned review of the relevant products in Annex I by June 2025. 

The natural rubber industry strongly supports the vision of the EUDR and GPSNR members have been working on committing to and implementing strong environmental and human rights related principles in their operations for a long time. These efforts need the support of a fair and transparent regulatory environment that can help the industry move further ahead on their efforts on deforestation and human rights. 

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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 Director

Email: bani.bains@gpsnr.org

Ph: +65 97268165

By Nicole Tan, Project Manager, RubberWay

A couple of months ago, RubberWay was proud to introduce its contributions to sustainable natural rubber to members of GPSNR. 

Data obtained through RubberWay contributes to helping users meet the GPSNR Reporting Requirements. A crosswalk analysis done by the RubberWay team showed that it provides 89% coverage of the 37 GPSNR Policy Components, of which 18 Policy Components are directly satisfied by RubberWay while 15 are partially contributed to.

RubberWay meets 33 out of 37 GPSNR Policy Components through direct and indirect contributions.

The webinar hosted by GPSNR gave RubberWay the chance to provide an overview of its solution from the perspective of both tire makers and processors. 

The sharing by tire makers highlighted the motivations for their participation in RubberWay and the ways in which RubberWay’s results have enabled them to engage in efforts on the ground. 

Similarly, natural rubber processors are able to apply data from RubberWay to implement field actions while also using the tool as a channel to facilitate communication directly with smallholders.

Users are able to utilise data generated through RubberWay to inform risk mitigation measures. RubberWay also provides its users with a channel for supplier engagement. 

More detailed information on how RubberWay contributes to achieving GPSNR’s goals for sustainable natural rubber can be found in the RubberWay white paper. Access to the complete crosswalk analysis is also available upon request.

ABOUT RUBBERWAY

RubberWay is a digital risk mapping solution that helps upstream actors to detect environmental and social risks across the natural rubber supply chain. Risk data obtained through RubberWay generates actionable insights for users like tire makers and processors to drive change towards sustainability within the industry. 

With over 50,000 questionnaires completed to date, the RubberWay dataset is set to increase with growing participation of users, enabling expansive reporting of sustainability risks across sourcing countries globally. 

Find out more about RubberWay here.