Abstract
ABSTRACTThe recent expansion and intensification of natural rubber cultivation has been associated with widespread forest conversion, habitat and biodiversity loss, increased livelihood vulnerabilities and, in some cases, dispossession of land. While these issues have attracted considerable attention from scientific and academic communities, public awareness – particularly in terms of consumer demand for standards and certification – has been slow to develop in comparison to other agro-commodity crops. Drawing on the concepts of global value chain analysis, management swing potential and issue attention cycle, this article examines the relatively slow uptake of natural rubber eco-certification through a comparison of three case studies in Jambi (Indonesia), Xishuangbanna (China) and Kerala (India). This study finds that natural rubber certification has taken a path of least resistance, emerging in relatively short value chains characterized by high degrees of vertical integration where existing production practices require minimal adjustment to achieve certification. Although certification programmes often position themselves as transparent and accountable alternatives to government regulation, the success of these programmes is dependent on the continued presence of the state to establish the necessary institutional and social foundations for private regulation to operate successfully. Consumer pressure plays an important role in evoking sustainability initiatives and influencing standards, yet when disconnected from the specific issues associated with a particular commodity, public concerns may produce standards and forms of certification that need to be complemented by sub-national and national policy and programmes in providing solutions for ecosystem service and social problems.EDITED BY Meine van Noordwijk
Highlights
Natural rubber cultivation has expanded in a number of waves across Southeast Asia, southern China and South Asia since the crop was first introduced in the late nineteenth century (Fox & Castella 2013)
Despite increased interest in eco-certification of natural rubber in recent years, emerging certification efforts may fail to address many of the more serious impacts on environmental and social issues associated with the natural rubber production
Consumer demands for ‘environmentally friendly’ and ‘organic’ products that lack consideration of rubber production systems and their impacts have resulted in a certification standard that require little adjustment on the part of the producer, do little to promote improved sustainable but intensive production practices such as agroforestry, in involving smallholder farmers, and may fail to address larger concerns relating to deforestation and disruption of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provisions
Summary
Natural rubber cultivation has expanded in a number of waves across Southeast Asia, southern China and South Asia since the crop was first introduced in the late nineteenth century (Fox & Castella 2013). Predicted increases in demand over coming decades combined with low rubber prices and displacement by more profitable crops such as oil palm suggests rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia could expand into as much as 8 million hectares of non-traditional growing areas throughout Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar by 2024 (Warren-Thomas et al 2015). While concerns over the expansion and intensification of other agro-commodity crops have motivated interest in eco-certification – a form of market-based environmental regulation that aims to promote sustainable production practices through price premiums for commodities produced in accordance with ecologically and socially responsible standards – eco-certification of natural rubber has been much slower to develop. The first strand, ‘issue attention cycle’, attempts to understand and predict patterns of public attention in response to environmentally or socially harmful production and business practices (Tomich et al 2004). The cycle, driven largely by promotion of issues through public media outlets, runs through a series of phases, from initial awareness, through elaboration, negotiation and implementation of solutions to the eventual decline of intense public interest and re-evaluation
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