100,000 ha of rubber plantations expected to get sustainable forest management certificate

So far, 55,000 ha of rubber plantations of VRG has been awarded the certificate.

With the existing certified area, 85,000 tonnes of natural rubber and 300,000 tonnes of certified sustainable rubber wood will be exploited for commercial production.

2021 can be seen a pivotal year, with major turning points for natural rubber and sustainable rubber wood production in Vietnam. Dozens of new sustainable forest management certificates have been granted to forest owners and the PEFC Chain of Custody certificates to natural rubber and rubber wood processing plants and purchasing companies.

PEFC is the largest forest certification system in the world and the certification system of choice for small forest owners, with more than 300 million hectares in 49 nations. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, PEFC provides independent assessment, endorsement, and recognition of national forest certification systems.

PEFC in Southeast Asia has built strategic partnerships to make a sustainable rubber industry a reality. PEFC's efforts are rooted in the fact that 85 percent of the world’s natural rubber comes from Southeast Asia, with the majority of it produced by millions of smallholders on small scale.

Over the past years PEFC has been working on pilot projects to certify groups of smallholders in Thailand, expand chain of custody certification for rubber wood in Malaysia, and bring new supplies of certified rubber online in Vietnam. Those projects set the stage for a transformation in 2021.

From the demand side, PEFC partnered with Weber & Schaer, one of the largest natural rubber trading houses, and Unilin, a global leader in hardwood flooring and panelling that relies on rubberwood.

Weber & Schaer cited the large-scale certification of VRG as the trigger for them to get certified, adding that this is a strong indication that demand exists for environmentally friendly rubber, and that supplier certification can trigger certification of buyers.

In addition to VRG, PEFC and its partners in Vietnam are also actively supporting groups of households in Thua Thien-Hue, Lang Son and Yen Bai provinces, with about 6,000 hectares of forest certified for sustainable forest management in accordance with VFCS/PEFC standards.