Mapping the Natural Rubber Value Chain in Malaysia

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s been a tumultuous end to 2021—the Philippines was ravaged by Typhoon Odette, Malaysia faced one of its worst floods in decades, several countries around the world were reporting and/or expecting a surge in Omicron infections.

The floods has triggered yet another wave of anger against the government, with frustrated Malaysians taking to social media to criticise officials for their incredibly slow response. Citizens and migrants are forced to help each another once again, this time under the #BanjirDarurat (Flood Emergency) campaign. Questions are also heating up on deforestation and the source of log jams in rural zones. As usual, we have the relevant social media data which we will explore in our next post under the Data and Analysis page.

For this post, a brief moment of happy news for us: in mid-December 2021, WWF released two reports exploring the sustainability issues surrounding the Malaysian natural rubber industry, both of which Segi Enam authored. What we found was that while the rubber supply chain is generally straightforward, the lack of transparency, traceability, and publicly available data makes it a difficult industry to evaluate when it comes to sustainability standards. Much of the root of the problem lies within the production system—for instance, smallholders dominate in this area and are typically not afforded the incentives to adopt more sustainable practices.

Segi Enam (WWF; 2021): Indicative map of rubber plantations in Malaysia based on the 2013-2014 dataset and maps retrieved from the Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform. Rubber dominant zones (dark green and mid-green) include: (1) Gua Musang, Kelantan; (2) near the Gerik, Perak-Southern Thai border; (3) Serting and Palong, Negeri Sembilan; (4) Lipis and Raub, Pahang; and (5) FELCRA/RISDA projects in Sarawak and estates in Sabah.

Read the full report here: Mapping the Natural Rubber Value Chain in Malaysia.

For the second report focusing specifically on the rubberwood sector: Addendum Report on Rubberwood

PEFC Supporting Sustainable Rubber

The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) has launched the Our Supporting Sustainable Rubber campaign in effort to ramp up sustainability standards within the rubber industry. PEFC held an online webinar to officially kickstart the campaign yesterday, in which several interesting pieces of information were revealed:

1. Problems faced by rubber smallholders are essentially: (1) price volatility; (2) low productivity; (3) unsustainable practices; and (4) compliance issues. To that end, PEFC is a key partner in an initiative with the UN-REDD Programme to develop a sustainable forest trade certification framework, with its pilot project already ongoing in the Lower Mekong region in Thailand.

2. The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) is looking to create a risk-based platform that would allow certified companies to assess its sustainability standards against the standards recommended by the GPSNR. The platform was led by tire companies as an alternate (non-certification?) approach. The International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) also has a self-declaration approach to rubber sustainability.

3. There was a point made about the increasing global demand for traceability, and that it may be more beneficial to view the requirement of traceability as a tool to improve sustainability practices rather than to reveal good and/or bad practices in itself. Panellists also noted that there is also a lot of work that still needs to be done to identify pertinent sustainability issues, especially when it comes to social issues such as equality of pay.

Edit (08.07.2021, 12.50 p.m.): Edited to include last two sentences in point 2.

Protected Planet: Map of Protected Areas and OECMs

Protected Planet is an online database of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) as part of a joint project between the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

We explored the dataset offered by Protected Planet and took a look at the protected areas in Malaysia. The map was fascinating—Malaysia’s national parks like Taman Negara and the Endau-Rompin National Park were easily identifiable, along with other nature reserves and wilderness areas where human contact is strictly limited. While not displayed here, it should be noted that the dataset also offers marine-based conservation areas.

Out of curiosity, we overlaid the dataset with a map of rubber plantations by Transparent World (2015) via Global Forest Watch (GFW), and found that the two maps fit very nicely around each other with little overlap. We’ve also grabbed locations of saw mills based on search results on Google Maps just for kicks.

Forced Labour: Customs Officials, Import Bans, and Labour Rights

Destination regulatory bans are beginning to move into the headlights as the hopefully effective measure in enforcing labour laws. The States, via its United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), remains as one of the countries with much tougher labour rules—other countries, including the UK, Australia, and particularly Canada appear to be catching up. Ana Hinojosa, a USCBP Office of Trade executive director reveals that slapping companies with withhold release orders (WRO) is meant to send an “unambiguous” message to the trade community, maintaining that “[c]onsumers have a right to know where the palm oil is coming from and the conditions under which that palm oil is produced and what products that particular palm oil is going into.”

So far, the US imports bans seem to have an effect. The Malaysian-based companies who were slapped with the ban have respond to these allegations. WRP and Top Glove, who were issued bans following allegations of labour abuse against their migrant workers (including debt bondage), are reimbursing recruitment fees incurred by their foreign labour force (the WRO issued against WRP was revoked four months later in March 2020). Sime Darby recently conducted an internal assessment and claimed that it did not reveal evidence of systemic forced labour issues in its operations; the company stated that it will also be engaging an independent assessor. FGV has similarly stated that it will be appointing a third-party auditor to assess its operations.

Climate Change & ASEAN - Review of Recent Policy Issues at the 10th AIPA Caucus

At Parlimen Malaysia last week, I reviewed recent policy issues on #climatechange and #ASEAN. It was a brief lit review. For background, I also had the chance to talk to researchers from Oxford and Cambridge, to drill on certain economic questions.

All ASEAN delegates were concerned on climate risks in the region. Progress and plans mentioned by each country. Including some discussion on #carbontax, with Singapore reflecting on its implementation. Regret on low #carbonprice was noted by Cambodia. #Wasteplastics and #landfill concerns and also caution on #incinerators.

On the sidelines, a good chat with Vietnam expert on #coconuts, farmer income, high yield and #Intercropping options; regret on the income problems for younger rural families in monocrop zones of #oilpalm and #rubber.

Had a chance to meet delegates from most member states, but Thailand and Indonesia not present due to political transitions. Other working group tracks on women, children & trafficking and terrorism.

At the 10th AIPA Caucus, Kuala Lumpur, Jun 2019