BOGOR, Indonesia — The International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) has agreed to work with an Indonesian agricultural research body on natural rubber sustainability efforts, with an aim of creating joint proposals for resource mobilization.
The IRSG and Bogor-based Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) — the research arm of CGIAR — signed a letter of intent recently to explore working together in order to leverage their respective strengths, bringing together the work done by NR producers and consumers that are served by the IRSG with that of the FTA’s research and development program.
The cooperative pact also will include the efforts of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), a non-profit, scientific institution that conducts research on challenges of forest and landscape management around the world.
“The rubber sector is at a turning point, and is now quite conscious of the need to embrace a more sustainable future.” Vincent Gitz, director of CIFOR and FTA said. “A program like FTA can support the sector and its stakeholders with evidence-based solutions toward sustainability. We’re glad to cooperate with IRSG for this.”
FTA’s program is the largest research for a development program dedicated to embracing the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in improving production systems. Through education, it looks to address some of the biggest sustainability issues of the moment, such as food security and living wages for people around the world, while “providing concrete responses to climate change.”
IRSG Secretary General Salvatore Pinizzotto noted the importance of collaboration in helping to propel the natural rubber industry into a more sustainable future.
“This is a very important collaboration for IRSG,” he said, “as it will give us the opportunity to further develop activities that could be of support for the IRSG sustainability agenda that has been unveiled by the organization in March 2019.”
CGIAR is the adopted name for the the FTA’s umbrella organizaton; it originally stood for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.