Achieving SDGs through the PROJECT TREE Initiatives (the Initiative)

Build a resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development in the rubber industry.

Human Rights

We are offering direct incentives to suppliers (along the supply chain, including local collectors, dealers and processing companies) and using funds for smallholders to promote sustainability activities to improve productivity. This includes providing training in farming practices to increase supplier revenue and to meet the growing demand for natural rubber within the limited land resources.

Achieving SDGs through the Initiative

Seek to end poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Environment

Data from raw material collection sites are recorded in our traceability system to determine the risks of each location and monitor collection activities. PROJECT TREE aims to only use natural rubber produced in agreed areas outside of conservation areas as defined by World Database on Protected Areas. We will contribute to the conservation of wildlife by preventing uncontrolled growth of farm land, over-cultivation and illegal logging near protected areas.

* The World Database on Protected Areas downloaded from the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT). Provided by BirdLife International, Conservation International, IUCN and UNEP-WCMC. Please contact ibat@ibat-alliance.org for further information.

Achieving SDGs through the Initiative

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

ITOCHU Corporation owns PT Aneka Bumi Pratama(PT ABP), one of Indonesia’s largest natural rubber processing companies with two factories on the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the provinces of South Sumatra and Jambi, respectively.
ITOCHU became a founding member of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) in 2018.

PT ABP buys its rubber supplies from smallholder farmers operating small plantations mostly in southern and central Sumatra.
A network of mostly independently operating collectors, dealers and agents buy the rubber at the farms, at village collection points, or at local auctions and transport it to PT ABP’s factories. The structure is typical for Indonesian rubber.
It is complex with little transparency of the actual flows of rubber.
It thus does not lend itself for downstream companies to actively help to improve sustainable production.

ITOCHU therefore designed its new natural rubber transparency and sustainability program, ”PROJECT TREE”, as one way to implement its CSR policy and to apply the guidelines of GPSNR to its rubber supply chain.
PROJECT TREE has just begun its activities and is expected to grow and address as many of rubber production’s sustainability issues as possible over time and as they become known.

1. 1) TRACEABILITY

   ITOCHU has hired ITOCHU Techno-Solutions to create a block-chain based traceability app able to track rubber supplies from smallholders to factory to provide the necessary transparency to PT ABP’s supply chain.
   The app will record every transaction between collectors and dealers as a given rubber lot travels through the dealer network to the processing factory. It will record the location of the collecting points, compare them to a database of ecologically sensitive areas across Sumatra and flag locations that indicate a potential risk to these sensitive areas.
   Traced rubber lots will be segregated at purchase and transported to the factories for segregated processing, packaging and trade on the HeveaConnect rubber trading platform.

2. 2) INCENTIVES

   ITOCHU has designed an incentive program for farmers and dealers to improve acceptance of transparency and sustainability programs and improve farmers livelihood.
   Incentives may include training programs, bonus payments for participating in and graduating from the programs, high yielding rubber tree clones, fertilizer, farm tools, and safety equipment.

3. 3) SUSTAINABILITY

   ITOCHU’s subsidiary company, PT ABP, has hired ProForest, an NGO, to address its rubber sustainability needs, to design a program to improve farm sustainability and farmer equity in its supply chain, and to evaluate the impact the program has on participating farmers.
   The program is based on the “Responsible Sourcing from Smallholders (RSS)” framework.

   The program which began in early 2021, identified a first group of 150 farmers, assessed their supply chain risks, designed a training program based on the risk analysis, and trained PT ABP staff to conduct the actual farmer training.