Ensuring legal compliance amongst smallholder rubber producers in Viet Nam

In 2020, the Viet Nam rubber industry contributed an estimated USD 7.86 billion to the Vietnamese economy. Smallholder rubberwood producers manage more than half of Viet Nam’s rubber plantations; approximately 260 000 households harvest upwards of 1.3 million cubic meters of rubberwood each year, accounting for 40 percent of national timber production. As smallholder rubber producers supply a critical mass of raw material to primary and secondary wood processors in Viet Nam, engaging them in legal production is crucial. To help support geographically dispersed smallholders, the FAO-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme partnered with the Viet Nam Rubber Association (VRA) to better understand the challenges faced by smallholder rubber producers to meet legal requirements, to enable them to comply with the conditions set out in Decree 102/2020/NĐ-CP (1 September 2020) on the Viet Nam Timber Legality Assurance System (VNTLAS). As part of this process, VRA has conducted two assessments and discussed the findings with stakeholders representing producers from the rubber-producing provinces of Dinh Duong and Tay Ning.

Read the full story here: Ensuring legal compliance amongst smallholder rubber producers in Viet Nam | FAO-EU FLEGT Programme | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations