Fair Trade Rubber & the Environment

FairDeal established the first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) certified supply chain for rubber - which is classified as a so called 'non timber forest product'.

FairDeal pays for FSC® audits for its partners, and consultants, where necessary, as auditing fees can be prohibitively expensive.

While the bulk of our rubber requirements is sourced from plantations - not least because certain types of rubber are not available from small farmer suppliers - FairDeal has invested heavily in enabling small farmers to participate in its Fair Trade scheme, too. FairDeal literally spent 10s of 1000s of US in two failed attempts to get small farmers in India FSC® certified and into its supply chain - and then similar amounts again with a small group of farmers in Sri Lanka. In 2011 they became the first FSC® certified small farmer rubber producers - and partners in FairDeal's Fair Trade scheme for rubber.