Gender, social equality and sustainability certification in Thai smallholder rubber production

A 2018 SEI scoping study found that FSC sustainability certification in Thailand's rubber sector often fails to benefit smallholders directly, with certificates primarily held by processing companies. The study highlights significant gender inequalities in governance and pay, as well as systemic barriers to certification caused by historical land tenure issues and the lack of formal contracts for migrant and seasonal workers.

• As of the study, only 13 FSC certificates for rubberwood production had been issued in Thailand. These certificates were primarily granted to local rubber-processing companies that are supplied by smallholders, rather than to smallholder-led groups, despite most falling under the Small and Low-Intensity Managed Forest (SLIMF) scheme.
• Smallholders supplying rubberwood reported receiving little to no direct economic benefit from certification, although they did gain support for livelihood diversification and sustainable production methods. Some farmers were unaware of the FSC certification itself, believing the sustainability requirements were imposed by the processing company.
• Gender inequalities persist in the sector; while women are highly active in production and represented roughly equally in group certificates, they are often excluded from trainings and governance, such as rubber-selling cooperatives. This is driven by social norms that view men as primary farmers, and is further evidenced by pay gaps between tasks categorized as 'men's tasks' (e.g., grass cutting, fertilizing) and 'women's tasks' (e.g., tapping rubber).
• Land tenure issues act as a barrier to certification for some smallholders who cannot provide the required documentary evidence. This difficulty stems from land reforms in the 1960s and 1970s that designated certain areas as protected forest or national reserve forest, complicating the acquisition of necessary deeds.
• FSC's focus on labour rights is difficult to monitor on smallholder farms because migrant, seasonal, and landless workers often lack formal written contracts. This monitoring gap is worsened by the reduced documentation requirements of the SLIMF scheme.

APA

Aung, M. T., Mortensen, S., Nguyen, H., Lualon, U., & Nopsert, C. (2019). Gender, social equality and sustainability certification in Thai smallholder rubber production. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sei-2019-p2cs-rubberwood-certification-gender-1.pdf

Chicago

Aung, May Thazin, Sofie Mortensen, Ha Nguyen, Unchulee Lualon, and Chirat Nopsert. Gender, social equality and sustainability certification in Thai smallholder rubber production. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2019. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sei-2019-p2cs-rubberwood-certification-gender-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Aung |first1=May Thazin |last2=Mortensen |first2=Sofie |last3=Nguyen |first3=Ha |last4=Lualon |first4=Unchulee |last5=Nopsert |first5=Chirat |title=Gender, social equality and sustainability certification in Thai smallholder rubber production |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=March 2019 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sei-2019-p2cs-rubberwood-certification-gender-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{aung2019gender, author = {Aung, May Thazin and Mortensen, Sofie and Nguyen, Ha and Lualon, Unchulee and Nopsert, Chirat}, title = {{Gender, social equality and sustainability certification in Thai smallholder rubber production}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2019}, month = mar, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sei-2019-p2cs-rubberwood-certification-gender-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }