 Welcome back everyone. We are moving to the the last and final panel discussion of the three days of workshop. The panel discussion is will be going to address the way forward the short term action and the long term plans. We have four panelists speakers for this panel discussion representing the four collaborators and collaborating organization. Mr. Savitur Epinisoto, Secretary General of International Rubber Study Group. Mr. Vinsanjit, Director C4 FTA Program. Dr. Rabdu Lassi, Secretary General of Fire ADB. And Mr. Jerome Saini Dhu with the Rubber Value Chain Correspondent Sirat. We had three days of deliberate discussions on climate change and its impact on the natural rubber systems. And all the discussions we had last two days and especially today. It is interestingly and emphatically pointed out that there is opportunity for opening multilateral dialogue on mitigation and adaptation strategies on climate change impact on our system. But about natural rubber integration into the international space. LESS is heard about natural rubber. It's an open fact. And what the international fora could do to address this as a way forward on what we heard in the last three days. There is enough scientific evidence and the science science science based results on the impact of climate change on the natural rubber systems and fora. But the doubt is that whether all this information is well communicated. Smartly communicated to the general rubber community or the climate change community is there is a gap in that space, even though we have strong research. And the results based on this. It has to be well communicated and we need collaboration with the private sector to address many of these challenges. As we heard that the business is not as not as usual. It is changing. So how we can address this in a collaborative way from bottom up approach and of course it should be a holistic one. I will pose two questions to all the four panelists speakers and what should be the way forward. I am keeping that open to to address that question. The first one is what do you retain from this event. What stands out. This is a common question. I'm I would like to place that to the four panelists speakers. Maybe I will first give the ball to Mr Vincent. Oh, okay. Thanks. Thanks, Alex, me and for this introduction and thanks. Thank you for the presenter. Just a few statistics because some of our colleagues in the back office just told us maybe interesting to you. We had four 560 registered participants in this workshop and we overshoot our targets and and each day over three or close to 300 participants is Jane not necessarily the same but just to to to give you these numbers I think it's a thank to all of you for participating and also for the lively the very lively chat and question and answer more than 160 questions. Not all have been answered yet. We're going to look into that, but just thank you all for for for the participation, the time and the interest what to retain from from my perspective. You know, I'm not a rubber expert. I come from other fields are related land use climate plantations in general, but I think what is striking with rubber research. First, through what we wanted to do in the science workshop is that there is a very big spectrum of research diversity. And that is also striking when we work in an agricultural organization like the CGI are rubber tree has been what domesticated more than 100 years ago and there's not been so many cultivation cycles. In the planet so and and and and despite that there is there's been a big amount of research immediately targeted to the question of production the technical aspect so very demand driven and very collaborative and that is first very striking from from from, I think from to show also what rubber research can can can do. The second point is, I think the title of this workshop was natural rubber systems and climate change and it's very striking how the work system is very right for for for rubber. Just look at the labor component. There is a need to to understand what can be done. There is some phone ringing but okay it won't last long sorry. You need to understand how the bio physical condition combined with the possibilities of technical itineraries and then how that can also play with with labor for instance the tapping dimension. I found the discussion in the first day very interesting. Then of course systems approach means also. Okay, I'm systems approach means also that you need to consider various components, even also in the in the in the way you look at the environment and has been an interesting discussion in the chat between nutrient recycling and and you know when you the use of wood for the for the bio economy. So, rubber systems. Then, I would say the the the issue of climate vulnerability past interaction with pests and diseases really highlight the importance of monitoring. And there's your question is it monitoring of rubber per se or is it also included in in in the broad agriculture and climate monitoring systems that countries and regions need to put in place. The key points just from the key points to retain I think the centrality of the question of land use we've touched about it. Some now may see wood and perhaps rubber as something bad even if it's natural project just because it may be the result of deforestation etc we the sector needs to bring a response to to this as the first thing and then we have to think of marginal and and and and poor non marginal zone for forever both of them are going to be disrupted by climate change and and and how can we learn lessons from what is going on in marginal areas in terms of future is quite is quite important the last two last points technology transfer we've touched about about that the genetic resource aspects of course, but also I would say the the the technical itineraries how to conduct rubber agroforestry system divide diversified and open to the value chain aspects, the diversification of of produce out of of latex etc and I think that this is a key point for the future. Lastly, I think a key selling point it's a it's a fact, perhaps we need more data we need more quantitative data. How the social aspects and the small holder as I think I mentioned that in his latest intervention, it's very, very important, the climate, the climate action is, is now going to be, you know, people centers we have a call for being more cautious to that even in the current COVID-19 crisis. This is something that is recognized by the SDGs. And that is also a very strong point of this of this workshop, even if it was a climate change oriented workshop. This is the rubber is able to bring a climate change response that is small order, not only small order sensitive but directed to to small orders and then these are the points to retain from my end but I guess there may be many others. Thank you. Thank you Vincent. I am passing the ball to Dr. Aziz. To take a look at the history of rubber. Actually, rubber when it was first planted, you know, basically the, the European is British in Malaysia in different parts, even in Sri Lanka. And they started out as a plantation crop. They did not start out as a small order crop plantation. And then over the years, with the labour problem, everything and then you have got choices. In the case of Malaysia specifically, there is a conversion from rubber, they've gone into oil pump, basically the estate sector. So today you have only about less than 10% of the area and the rubber owned by plantations. So what, what the problem is when we talk about deforestation, everything, unfortunately, you put together all the small orders who own the land. I think this is an important difference because the small orders, they own the land, they saw what estates are doing. And there was a very good collaboration between the estates and the small holdings nearby. They provide planting material. So the small orders realised this is something very, very good. It gives them a steady income. Sometimes we, we refer to it, they are having like an ATM machine behind their house. When they make the money, once it is mature, they can harvest, keep the rubber for some time and then sell. So this is just to give you the history of the thing. Then what has happened? These small holders, now let's assume that we know, we all know rubber is a very good three species. I think ultimately, when you get satellite pictures in the future, we know that there are only about 13 million hectares being planted. And we know that it is a very efficient converter of the, to reduce the carbon dioxide emission, very efficient because producing the latex material. So you have other species. We are only commercialising the heavier residences. So we need to do this. The point I'm trying to make is this. Let's now assume with all this problem of warming, global warming, suddenly somebody tells you, it's good to grow rubber. And then you tell the small holders, please grow rubber. Do you know that to grow rubber, you need the capital. And for us, we are quite lucky. We have got a system, the British level system. You collect sass, you have replanting sass. Other countries don't have that sort of structure. So what happened is the investment is very heavy. That's why when we defend small holders, we feel what they are going through. And I give you another example. When we were doing the expedition, I wrote to the FAO. I said, can you help us with this expedition into Brazil to collect the different species? The response that came back was, rubber is not under the concern of FAO because it's an industry crop. It's a tire company crop. That was the response. So now you can explain why we had the difficulties getting into this crop to get the rubber being registered very clearly. The other problem was there was a deadline in the previous one, Kyoto Protocol, something before certain days. But now I'm very happy, at least we have this opportunity. And I want to thank the C4 people because it's an eye-opener that we now need to sit down together and make the story known. Because you have no less than 10 million small holders and majority of them is their own land. They are not going to the forest to cut their own lands and they invest to grow this rubber. And then when the investment goes sour in a way, price very low for the last, maybe it was good in 2011. After that it just went down and down. So under the current situation, we would like to encourage them to replant. But how can they replant? They are not even able to pay the installment for the television, for the motorcycles. So this has posed a problem. A crop that we say is very good for poverty elevation has become a problem for the small holders who have gone into this. That's number one. Number two, the young people are not interested. They are not interested to go into the rubber planting. Very, very difficult. Many countries try this. Very, very difficult. Unless it is something that they go in, they can see that the return is worthwhile. Because the young people, they are educated, they can see that their parents work very hard for a very meager income. And sometimes now they work hard, the income is so small. So some young people are telling their parents, don't waste your time. We can send you money. In some countries this is happening. Malaysia especially, so their children will send them money. Okay, that one. Now if you want to encourage them to replant, they are not in a position without to replant. So this is the first part that we must understand the industry. It is a small holder industry. It's no more an estate except for those few conditions. I think I have to highlight that. I still have time to continue. I will come back to you for the next round. I like to move that. Okay, I just want to touch on a few other things because we are talking about midterm and long term. The point I'm trying to make is please you know that we have to work together, get all the other species included in the commercial. Very, very important. Just imagine it's a business opportunity. You have 10 species in front of you. You are only looking at the European Penicillinities. We must keep a look at this and that's why we want to go to Peru. We hope to get the cooperation of the government there to bring the different European species and then include this in our program for breeding. Thank you for the time being. Thank you, Dr. Rossi. Certainly we heard about this also how we could bring natural rubber in the national adaptation plants and then the ecosystem based approach we could bring in. And certainly that could be a way forward to address the issues you already pointed out the case of small growers. I'm asking the same question to Gerald. So what you could retain from this event and what stand out from a Sirat perspective. Thank you very much. I would like to first of all to thank you for the excellent presentation we have shown during these three days. And I retain the diversity of the type of presentation. We've seen some scientific presentation with state of art, last result of some experiment. And also some feedback from the field from different country. And even bioeconomy, sustainability of wood and climate change policy. I think it's very important and I think it's the first time we have this diversity inside of one workshop. My feeling after these three days is there is a very little scientific knowledge about natural rubber system and climate change. And we're very huge gap. And we need, as you mentioned this morning to have more data about this. This is very important. Just an example. In terms of the understanding of eco physiology mechanism from the carbon of air to the carbon of natural rubber. We have very, very few data on this. And this is, I think, a key problem. How aware we have seen also some data from the positive regularity effect on the climate. And also the positive effect of rubber shoe. But by example, we have not seen some data between this effect and the rainfall. Is there any link between rubber tree forest and rainfall? For the moment I don't know. We have seen also, and it's very good, the capital importance of cover crops associated crops on the entire line. This is very, very good. We also seen some rubber tree should be used for reforestation integrated zone. Remember that also rubber tree is a specific green factor. Perhaps only the only one in the world. And because these three can catch carbon from the air and transform its carbon in polis or train used for the mobility of the people in the world. And this is very, very important. One, I think one topic is not very shown during this workshop is socio-economy topics. We have only a few presentation only from Sri Lanka. About the social aspect and the impact of climate change with the small order problem of line we would. And I think it's necessary to reinforce these topics to have more data of the real life of small farmers in the world. This is very important. And the last last remark for us. As you mentioned, there is a very problem of communication of natural problems in the world. But also a problem of less of data, real data to implement many very important project because we know that there is a problem of finance. The problem is very huge. And this is why it's important to have more communication of data. Thank you very much. Thank you. The same question to you, Mr. Sabatoori. What do you retain from the event and what is the stand out from an IRC perspective? I cannot agree more with my colleagues, of course. I do think that research and development is very important that science when we speak about topics like climate change and impact on natural rubber. It is extremely important. A lot has been done, of course, but a lot, as Jerome said, should be done. And I think now we have to focus our attention on actually the topics that we think are a priority when it comes to research and development. Also because funds are not always available. And I think now everyone has to make an effort to concentrate on what really matters. On the social aspect, I already said before in previous session, I think this sector has a big gap in terms of in collection of data in relation to the social aspects of the natural rubber field. We don't know much. I think many governments don't know much. Some have better information than others, but overall now we have a lack of data. We need absolutely to improve. And I think these are fields that from an IRC perspective could be more and more developed. Because really the sector needs this kind of information. So we need a holistic approach on this, but depends a lot on us. I think when Aziz said or mentioned I went to FAO and they said it's not our business, I think part of the responsibility is ours. Not because we are the guys involved in rubber and we need to create the field such as other big organizations such as FAO or WUNCDA or others actually see rubber as an opportunity to develop, to investigate more, to bring funds. I think we need to have this kind of activity, but it relies on us, on our capability to put together our efforts and to make the case for rubber and natural rubber. So this is what we should do in my view. Okay, thank you Savitura. All the panelists are well aligned in the same thought. Yes, we need to make a big noise on the rubber and the importance of rubber as a sustainable raw material. And what the rubber could play in the sustainable development of the rubber economy. Yes, that is very important and key, but there is missing information and missing data. And we need to properly communicate that into a wider audience. Certainly, we have to prioritize which is the key areas we need to inverse because research needs funding and to bring or attract funding prioritization of the research areas is very much important. So all together looking at the detailed deliberation in the last three days. I would like to hear from all of the four panelists. What do you see as a way forward to address what we heard during the last three days of the discussion. Maybe I'll start that with the Savitura. What is a way forward? The way forward is to me very clear. And first of all, we have to, we will certainly distribute the proceedings of this workshop make available to everyone. We certainly have to have a follow up involving the organization that has been involved in this workshop so IRDP, C4, and CRAD and also others. And we have to find a way to put together an action plan. So we need to act now because the time of long discussion is over and we need really to have some good ideas on how to bring this agenda forward. So this is what I see in very short period of time to try to identify some good action. Thank you. Thank you, Savitura. What about you, Ms. Jerome, on what do you see as a way forward of our three days of discussions on climate change workshop? I totally agree with Savitura. Now it's important that we share the priorities in terms of topics and after how we can together find some institution, public sector, private sector to finance these topics. Because I think we have many, many ideas that we can share together. Very often the problem is that to catch some finance international institution and I think some people from CIFOR mentioned some institution and they help us to finance these topics. So I think as I've mentioned by a battery to put in place action plan to priorities, scientific and topics, and also after how we catch the finance international institution and private sector. Thank you, Jerome. Certainly once we have the action plan and the program in place, the challenge is the funding. So how to leverage on private sector and how the private sector and the international rubber for our could work together to address some of the priority topics we commonly agreed upon and how we can attract funds from the private sector to work on these topics. So all the panelists are well aligned in that thought. And I like to pose the same question to Dr. Assis. What do you see as a way forward on these three days of climate change discussions and its impact on the natural rubber systems? As I mentioned earlier, the opportunity to go for these core meetings and tell the good story of rubber. First, we must convince the NR producing countries. They send delegation. They never include anyone from the rubber sector to go together with that government delegation, which is important. The voice will be heard. On top of that you have NRTC, Association of Natural Rubber producing countries should be also there. IDB, I think important enough for us to be there and to work with the other C4 to bring up these issues so that it will be recognized because it's important to consider that when you talk about food security, you know, small holders, when they're planting rubber, they have to get additional income. So that is happening during the early stages of the plan. And you can have a farming system. This is looking at climate change, everything. That piece of land can be something that is not just grown for rubber, but grown also for food. Because they don't want to wait for the trees to mature. This is another issue I have to highlight. We have to work to reduce the immaturity period. Sometimes it takes them eight years before they can get the income. So in between, while the trees were young, they can have the intercropping. That's one. The other aspect that the way forward, we must also create opportunities for value addition that the small holders can benefit. As it stands now, that's why they are under pressure. They produce rubber, everybody knows is for the tire companies. There are 50,000 products that can be made from natural rubber. But the cooperative will have to be involved. I think some initiatives have been taken to give the opportunity for the small holders to enjoy this value addition. That means if the co-op can get the latex from the farmers, make some product, we saw the acreage. You know, right in the middle of somewhere, they produce. They get the latex, they produce condom. So this sort of deep goods is possible. And we have seen cases in Thailand. They are using that from the latex. They make full products. So this is one area I think looking at the way forward that we need to have the small holders so that they can continue to depend on rubber. My concern now, what we are very worried about, small holders are beginning to say rubber, there is no future for them. They just move away. Once majority of them leave to bring them back, going to be very, very difficult. Then we lose the opportunity. The other thing, this has been highlighted, not much of R&D on climate change. Let me just point out, climate change is a new issue. You know, first, general public know about climate change, 1990. You know, by that book, The Gentleman who wrote The End of Nature, that's how we highlighted. But until today, many people don't believe in climate change. You know, I want to point out that in terms of one crop, so much resources being devoted, so much time, so many researchers involved, worldwide. The oldest rubber institute in the world is Sri Lanka. It's still in existence. It's still doing work for the small holders. So this is a crop that a lot of science, technology and innovation has gone in. It will continue. So I think this is very important. As far as funding, you know, government with this COVID-19 is paralysis of the world's economies. Very, very tough time. And part of the reason why the tyres, you know, they are stuck also because millions of cars are not being sold. Small holders are feeling the pain. So I think we need to have a system whereby some contribution will come. The tyre companies are very concerned. They love the small holders. Why don't they contribute something to help with the research? Then you can tell them now you're not very transparent, we are helping you. They will be very cooperative. That's the direction to go. Otherwise, when do we get the funding? We used to get grant from the common fund of commodities to help the African rubber industry. The three countries, Nigeria, I think you know about this, the laboratory knows about this. But today it's not easy to get funds from some government also are facing difficulty with having to inject stimulus packages. So how do we expect them to come out and help with a further R&D? So things are becoming more difficult. But we have to, we should not give up. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Asis. Certainly, yes, all the panelists as well agreed that we need to communicate. Yes, that means we need to have narratives and storytelling on natural rubber and also bodies are all of small growers in that natural rubber space. So communication storytelling, whether it is story or narratives, all of us have to reemphasize on that. And there is opportunity for opening multilateral dialogue on these topics. Certainly, Vincent can add more into that. And what is a way forward from that perspective? Yes, thank you. Thank you. Like me, I would first support what Dr. Asis, Jérôme Saint-Beuve and Salvatore Tinsotto have said and add to their plea for and I think highlighted by many others. Yes, we need to increase the visibility of the sectors, not only the challenges, the problems, but also the opportunities and the solutions and increasing visibility is a lot about communication. What works very well in communication and when it's done in an evidence-based way, I mean grounded on scientific knowledge and in an organized way. I think the sector is what is already quite well organized with IRSG, with IRDB, other actors to do these two ones, these institutions, IPCC, UNFCCC and other sometimes informal instances. So once, if that is the overarching objective, because I would say, and of course as scientists, we always look at the new research questions, knowledge gaps, and this workshop has led to identify some of those, especially in relation to climate change risks and approaches. But we shouldn't be also too hard on ourselves and I think there is already a breadth of knowledge, a sum of knowledge that exists and that can be communicated. So there could be a value coming from this workshop, the search presentation, but also other research that couldn't make it because we only had three days to make a review article summarizing the state of knowledge and also of knowledge gaps in terms of rubber and climate change and possibilities for way forward. So that's number one, that would take a bit of time, but it's more from the science perspective than communicating to other stakeholders. And first, we need to make the most of this event. I think we need to have, we are the plan with the co-organizers to publish proceedings. Many in the question and answers or in the chat I've asked for the PowerPoints, for even for the recordings, so we'll make that available and we seek to make that available in a nice way. We have the objective and we will discuss that next week with colleagues to write a policy brief with recommendations. I think there has been a range of recommendations coming out of these discussions that could be of value. And I would say what is very powerful in general is when these are joint products, both the proceedings, the recommendation, they come from kind of a consortium that starts from science and scientific organization and generally these joint products are really, really powerful to enter into debate. And then everybody can use that whenever it engages either with science organization like the IPCC or with national or international procedures. And then lastly, I think, well to last point, I think there is, yes, the opportunity of 2021, several big opportunities. First, the climate summit, it should have taken place this year, it's not postponed to 2021, but it's a very big milestone because it's the 2020, it was the milestone. And this is really some point of engagement. Things happen a lot in the formal negotiation, but things happen also in the corridors and all side events and etc. And this is also where we need to be present and organized. If 20 people there tell the same story to different people, it starts to build something coherent and that people repeat. And there is also the World Forestry Congress, it's taking place next year in South Korea. I think when it comes to bioeconomy, a place to gather perhaps private sector actors also about that. And I think we need to make the most when we look at going into new fields or in new places to explain what rubber is and what it means in terms of its significance for the economy and also how to address some of the issues of the sector. We need to make the most of these digital spaces to invest the other places because what is interesting is that when we had the objective to do this workshop, we thought about a face to face workshop. So bringing 30, 50 experts to Singapore and discussing during three days and now we ended up with 250, 300 participants, some of them from the climate change sector, knowing less about rubber, some of them from the private sector or even from the industry, they wouldn't have participated. So perhaps we could also look at these places that are organizing these virtual meetings where we can bring our messages. And yes, lastly, I think there is a lot that we know, there's still a lot that we need to do to complement the knowledge and to go into implementation. And I think presenting an action plan that would based on research and based on on bringing new evidence answer at the same time the issue of climate change adaptation food security and contribution to the bio circular by economy and sustainable production and consumption, bringing more resilience and at the same time, more more more efficient and more climate friendly production and consumption mode. I guess that is that is something appealing and I think there are many emblematic solution in this sector diversification of production diversification of produce that are that are that could be very, very appealing for either for the industry or for some of the innovations supporting funds. Yeah. Thank you very much, Vincent, it's all the panelists are well aligned with the thoughts. In any, I will open the question to the attendees. If you want to ask the question. If you want to ask it please raise the hand or you like to post the questions. Certainly the panelists will address those questions. I think it isn't said quite a lot and the whole communication is very important communication is something that we have to plan carefully and we have to pay attention to the international agenda and be prepared to be there. I think you know this is what what really now we have to do. I think we spend some time. As Vincent said to look at what kind of communication this workshop. I think maybe now we still need to have some other thoughts but is there. And it's really, really, really important because could make a difference and know if the importance of rubber comes from different organizations and I think you know it creates really that force that we need to to bring attention of the international forum. So this is very important. Thank you very much. Yes, it is true that when a collaborative voice is heard and present in any international discussions that is totally different from one to one voices everybody trying to make. So the opportunity of collaboration for taking rubber to a next level of discussion to address how this wonderful sustainable material could play an active role in the social aspect on the economic aspect and the environment aspect of the society as well as the global. That can bring a positive change which the sustainable development goal is trying to envisage and the countries all are engaging and trying to bring these elements through the NDP and NDCs and which with the collaboration of all the international organization present today and collaborated for this event can make a big difference, bringing the natural rubber and the visibility for natural rubber into a next level. I like to thank all the panelists for their wonderful contribution to the today's discussion. At the same time, we like to thank all the participants, all the attendees who joined to the event all over the world. I like to give the floor to both Sabato Ray and Vincent to conclude the session. Thank you very much. Yes, not just from ISG site. I wanted to, first of all, thanks to all the colleagues from C4FTA, CRAD, of course, Dr. Zitz over LDP, without him we could not do this anyway. And I think all the speakers, all the researchers, everyone that has put an effort to give its own contribution during these three days. We had a lot of participants from all over the world, really, from South America to Southeast Asia and I think it was really amazing. It was more than actually we expected. Now it's time to move forward and make some good action. So thanks a lot for everything and also the guys working in the IT and the backstage. Fabio Ricci did a very good, excellent job. I think we have to thank him for his support. So thank you so much to everyone. Thank you, Salvatore. And yes, and warm thanks to Dr. Aziz and IRDB and to IRSV. Salvatore, you, Lakshmi and the team without whom this joint workshop wouldn't absolutely not have been possible. Thanks to CRAD. CRAD is a partner of the CGI research program on forestry and agroforestry together with C4 and others. But thanks to all the presenters, the more than 30 presenters at the time, they interest three days. And yes, thanks to the incredible back office team, I think we are all learning how to do these new seminars, these new webinars. We were deceived that it should be virtual. We were looking at exchange over coffees, over a coffee break, a corridor talks. But I think we managed to have a very productive event, very nice chat. And we look forward to meet next week with the co-organizers to re-discuss on how we make the most of it for the futures as many have called us to do so. So we hope we live up to the task. Thank you so much to everybody. Thank you so much for your organization. Thank you. We'll be now. Thank you very much. Thank you. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you so much.