globalwitness – Press release / Oct. 26, 2015 

Rubber giant Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG) has been expelled from the world’s leading forest certification body, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), following an investigation into illegal land and forest clearance in Cambodia. Responding to a complaint submitted by Global Witness last November, the FSC found that the state-owned company had illegally destroyed at least 50,000 hectares of forest for its rubber plantations in Cambodia alone, including wildlife sanctuaries and protected areas.

“The FSC investigation provides further evidence that VRG has destroyed some of South East Asia’s most important remaining forests, with indigenous communities forcibly displaced in the process, and is forcibly taking land from its rightful owners and destroying livelihoods – with untold and irreversible effects,” said Patrick Alley, a Founding Director of Global Witness. “The FSC has done the right thing by dropping them from its certification scheme. Now VRG needs to urgently take action to address the damage it has caused.” Continue reading “Vietnam Rubber Group stripped of Forest Stewardship Council certification for forest destruction, illegal land grabs and human rights abuses” →