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 Geography Digest
2016 Issue 1: Article 1

Articles written by and for geographers

By Dr Jesse Hastings (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore)

Developed in collaboration with Geography Unit, Humanities Branch, CPDD 2, Ministry of Education

Landscapes and Issues in the Tropics:

Tropical Forests
Why Do We Need Tropical Forests?
Tropical forests in Southeast Asia and across the world provide many benefits to both the natural
world and humanity (Table 1). Effects of deforestation (complete removal of trees and conversion of
land into another use) and forest degradation (thinning of the forest canopy) include decreased
carbon storage, increased carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, increased desertification and
flooding, disrupted hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, reduced socio-economic benefits, loss
of cultural and spiritual values, and increased levels of vulnerability of local communities to natural
hazards.
At current rates of loss, tropical forests in Southeast Asia will be almost completely gone by 2100!
We must manage tropical forests sustainably if we want to avoid an economically, culturally, and
biologically poorer world (WWF, 2011).
Benefit Explanation
Carbon Storage As long as trees are standing, they store carbon dioxide and help mitigate climate
change. Some forests (usually old-growth tropical forests as opposed to young
forests or plantations) have higher carbon storage values than others (Figure 1).
Biodiversity Tropical forests are host to incredible biodiversity – it is estimated that over 50%
of the Earth’s species make their home here! Southeast Asia hosts the largest
remaining extent of tropical forests in Asia.
Protection from Soil
The roots of tropical forests bind soil and reduce soil erosion, which reduces
Erosion, Sedimentation,
sedimentation of nearby water bodies and flooding of local communities.
and Flooding
Contributions to
Tropical forests contribute to the regional hydrological cycle and climate through
Hydrological and
evapotranspiration, as well as to the cycling of nutrients such as nitrogen.
Biogeochemical Cycles
Timber, Timber Tropical forests provide timber and timber products, which contribute to jobs and
Products, Employment local livelihoods.
Non-Timber Forest Tropical forests are important sources of NTFP such as fruits, vegetables, nuts,
Products (NTFP) fish, and medicines, as well as barks and fibres.
Cultural and Spiritual For many local communities that live in or near tropical forests, forests serve as an
Values important location for cultural and spiritual ceremonies and are connected to
traditional practices and beliefs.
Aesthetic and
Tropical forests are places of natural beauty, recreation, and tourism.
Recreational Values
Table 1: Benefits of Tropical Forests

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 1

© 2016 Curriculum Planning and Development Division 2
Tropical Forests 2

Figure 1: Forest Carbon Stock throughout Southeast Asia (measured in MgC ha-1)
Source: Saatchi et al., 2011

State of Forests Globally and in Southeast Asia

The world’s total forest cover has decreased from 31.6% to 30.6 % of Earth’s land area between
1990 and 2015. While some regions have actually gained forest over this time, other regions –
particularly South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia - are in a deforestation and forest degradation
crisis. In our region, Indonesia’s forests receive the most attention because of their high biodiversity
value, their annual rate of forest loss (Table 2) as well as the total forest cover lost since 1990 (27.54
million hectares). Timor-Leste (due in part to war) has the greatest rate of annual forest loss in
Southeast Asia since 1990. Some countries in Southeast Asia are regaining forests cover through
reforestation (Table 3), but these young forests take time to mature and don’t possess the same
benefits of older, more biodiverse forests (FAO, 2015).

Country Annual % Change Rate, 1990 - 2015

Timor-Leste -1.4
Cambodia -1.2
Myanmar (Burma) -1.2
Indonesia -1.1
Brunei -0.3
Malaysia 0
Singapore 0
Laos 0.2
Thailand 0.6
Philippines 0.8
Vietnam 1.8
Table 2: Annual Percentage Change Rate in Forest Cover across Southeast Asia, 1990 – 2015
Source: FAO, 2015

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 1

© 2016 Curriculum Planning and Development Division 2
Tropical Forests 3

Drivers of Tropical Forest Loss

Deforestation and forest degradation are ultimately caused by human population and economic
growth. More humans consuming more resources leads to a growth in commercial agriculture, local
and subsistence agriculture, infrastructure expansion, logging, mining, urban expansion, and other
drivers which contribute to the problem (Figure 2).
In Southeast Asia, commercial and subsistence agriculture is the largest driver of deforestation, while
extraction of trees for timber and logging is the largest driver of forest degradation. Expansions of
plantations for oil palm, paper/pulp, and rubber are particularly implicated in the loss of tropical
forests across the region. Corruption, lack of enforcement, weak land tenure, ineffective regulations,
and poor governance create an atmosphere where unsustainable resource use and rapacious
capitalism thrive unchecked (Hososuma et al., 2012) (Linkie et al., 2014).

Figure 2: Ultimate and Proximate Drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation.

Source: Hosonuma et al., 2012

Case Study 1: Peat Fires and Haze in Southeast Asia1

Peatswamp forests once covered 214,000km2 (21%) of the land area of Sumatra, Borneo and
Peninsular Malaysia. Though these soils are acidic, water logged and nutrient poor, they host an
amazing diversity of plants, mammals, birds and fish. Since 1990 however, peatswamps have been
drained, cleared and converted to use for oil palm, paper pulp, and small-scale farmers. Most of this
clearance has been done using fire. These fires quickly go out of control, leading to transboundary

1
Source of Case Study: Lahiru s. Wijedasa, Founder of Conservation Links, Researcher at Rimba,
and PhD Candidate at the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of
Singapore.

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 1

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Tropical Forests 4

haze (Figure 3) and resulting in life threatening health issues, species extinctions, and billion dollar
economic losses.
The recent Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (2014) passed by the Singapore government attempts
to financially penalize companies operating in Malaysia and Indonesia for haze-generating activities.
Direct consumer pressure is also bringing errant companies to the table in search of a long term
solution. For example, consumer pressure led the Singapore Environment Council to suspend the
Green Label for sustainability it had given to companies associated with haze causing fires, which it
turn convinced supermarket chains to stop selling products linked to the companies. This shows that
consumers have a direct role in combating deforestation through their product choices.

Figure 3: Satellite Image of 2013 haze event. Red areas indicate areas burnt. Singapore is lower
right. Source: NASA, 2013

Case Study 2: Historical Forest Loss in Singapore

Singapore was not always the bustling, highly-urbanized city-state that it is today. When the British
first settled Singapore in 1819, it was almost completely covered with lowland dipterocarp forest,
freshwater swamp forest, and mangrove forest (Figure 4). Subsequent clearing for agriculture,
timber, and urban development reduced the extent of these biomes drastically to a small fraction of
what they once were. For example, only 0.5% of the original extent of dryland primary forest
remains (Figure 5)! We should value and maintain what is left in our undeveloped land and nature
reserves (O’Dempsey, 2014).

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 1

© 2016 Curriculum Planning and Development Division 2
Tropical Forests 5

Figure 4: Singapore’s Land Cover before settlement

Source: O’Dempsey, 2014

Figure 5: Singapore’s Land Use Plan for 2030

Source: Ministry of National Development, 2013

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 1

© 2016 Curriculum Planning and Development Division 2
Tropical Forests 6

Strategies to Reduce Deforestation and Forest Degradation

Sustainable forest management, protected areas, sustainability certifications, and United Nations
programmes such as REDD+ are some of the most popular methods in Southeast Asia and globally
for reducing deforestation and forest degradation (Table 3).

Strategy Explanation
Sustainable “The stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that
Forest maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their
Management potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social
functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to
other ecosystems.” (Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe
1993, adopted by FAO in 2011)
Sustainability Schemes in which forests, forest products, or commodities linked to forests are
Certifications certified (usually by non-governmental organizations) as being sustainably managed
and/or not contributing to forest loss. The two largest forest certification schemes in
existence today are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for
Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). The biggest certification scheme for
palm oil is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Protected “A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and
Areas managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term
conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.”
(IUCN, 2008)
Reducing “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is an
Emissions effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives
from for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-
Deforestation carbon paths to sustainable development. ‘REDD+’ goes beyond deforestation and
and Forest forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of
Degradation forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.” (UN REDD Programme, 2008 –
(REDD+) 2015)
Payments for “Payments for environmental services (also known as payments for ecosystem
Ecosystem services or PES), are payments to farmers or landowners who have agreed to take
Services certain actions to manage their land or watersheds to provide an ecological service.
(PES) As the payments provide incentives to land owners and managers, PES is a market-
based mechanism, similar to subsidies and taxes, to encourage the conservation of
natural resources.” (International Institute for Environmental and Development,
2015)
Political & Factors including corruption and lack of land tenure are contributing to deforestation
Institutional and forest degradation in Southeast Asia. For example, 16% of total forest loss in
Capacity Indonesia between 2002 and 2012 happened inside of protected areas or other areas
Building that prohibit clearing. Working to increase political and institutional capacity is
necessary (Juffe-Bignoli et al., 2014).
Timber Using cutting-edge technologies such as DNA and stable isotope analysis to track the
Tracking journey of timber and timber products throughout its supply chain. This has the
potential to reduce illegal logging by reducing the sale of illegal timber and timber
products.
Reforestation Restoring forest cover by either tree planting or encouraging native forest
ecosystems to expand into previously forested areas.
Population Reducing the rate of population growth through methods such as female
Planning empowerment, education, birth control, or legislation.
Table 3: Some popular strategies to reduce deforestation and forest degradation

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 1

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Tropical Forests 7

Case Study 3: REDD+ Demonstration Project in Seima Protection Forest, Cambodia2

An ongoing REDD+ project in Seima Protection Forest (SPF), Cambodia is working to improve
forest management, mitigate climate change, and contribute to national development of the country.
Managed by the Cambodian Forestry Administration in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation
Society and many local partners, the project focuses on providing financial, planning, and capacity
building support so to prevent forest loss through land clearance and illegal logging (Figure 6).

Located in eastern Cambodia in Modulkiri and Kratie provinces, the SPF covers an area of 292,690
hectares (ha). The REDD+ project area covers 166,983 ha of forests in the SPF core zone. The SPF
was created by a Prime Ministerial sub-decree in 2009; this decree upgraded the conservation status
of the former Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area established in 2002.

SPF was chosen as a REDD+ project site based on its rich biological diversity and its wealth of
forest resources. It is also part of the ancestral homeland of a large number of ethnic Bunong people
(Figure 7), for whom the forest is a key source of income and central to their spiritual beliefs.
Twenty Bunong villages are located within the REDD+ project area. The project is not only helping
poor communities officially secure their forest tenure rights, but also is generating long term incomes
to improve their livelihoods and capacities for sustainable forest management. The revenues from
carbon credit sales will be used to support local community livelihood improvement including
through Non-Timber Forest Project (NTFP) enterprises, infrastructure development, and eco-
tourism.

Figure 6: Confiscated timber, SPF headquarters

Source: Donal Yeang

Figure 7: Ethnic Bunong people in SPF

Source: Donal Yeang

2
Source of Case Study: Mr. Donal Yeang is a REDD+ Specialist at the Wildlife Conservation
Society, Cambodia. He can be contacted at dyeang@wcs.org. Relevant literature on this case study
includes Evans et al. 2012, Yeang 2010, and Yeang et al. 2015.

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 1

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Tropical Forests 8

Case Study 4: the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Adopted in September 2015 at a United Nations summit in New York, the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commits countries to
work towards greater human prosperity and planetary protection. Goal 15.2 commits signatories to
“by 2020, promoting the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt
deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation
globally”. Forest advocates hope that the SDGs and the 2030 agenda will encourage greater
international and national action to protect and restore forests (United Nations, 2015).

What YOU can do!

1. Reduce your consumption of paper and other products that depend upon forest clearing (e.g.,
paper products, non-plantation timber, rubber, palm oil). Check ingredients: palm oil is in many
consumer products as well as processed foods.
2. If you have to buy, buy products that are certified by one of the major sustainability certification
schemes (FSC, PEFC, RSPO, Green Label Singapore). Look for their logos. Avoid suppliers that
engage in unsustainable practices.
3. Get involved in community, national, or regional efforts to support sustainable forest management
and protected areas.
4. Support legislation (such as the 2014 Transboundary Haze Pollution Act) that identifies and
punishes individuals and companies that are contributing to deforestation and forest degradation.
5. Educate yourself and your friends about the causes and solutions to deforestation and forest
degradation. We are not powerless to stop the loss of forests!

Suggested Classroom Activities

1. Create scenarios for the students where they are put in the role of different forest stakeholders
(local community leader, politician, CEO of paper/pulp company, etc.) and have to make a
decision on forest use. Use these scenarios to have students uncover the multiple drivers of and
complexities inherent in solving deforestation and forest degradation.
2. Have the students go to www.globalforestwatch.org and explore real-time forest data from
Southeast Asia.
3. Invite representatives from governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private
companies to talk to your class about the work they are doing to combat deforestation and forest
degradation.

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Online Resources
1. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR): www.cifor.org.

2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): www.fao.org/home/en.

3. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): www.fsc.org.

4. Global Forest Watch: www.globalforestwatch.org.

5. IUCN Forest Conservation Programme: www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/forest/

6. Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC): www.pefc.org.

7. Protected Area coverage: www.protectedplanet.net.

8. Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO): www.rspo.org.

9. Singapore Green Labeling Scheme: www.sgls.sec.org.sg

10. United Nations Environmental Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP
WCMC). www.unep-wcmc.org.

11. United Nations Sustainable Development Platform: www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org.

Getting to know the faculty: Department of Geography (NUS)

About the Author
Dr Jesse Hastings served as a Lecturer in the Department of Geography,
National University of Singapore, from 2012 until 2016.
He has a Masters in Public Policy and a Ph.D in Environment, recieved from
Duke University (USA) in 2006 and 2011, respectively.
His main research interests include protected area governance and financing,
conservation planning, and science-policy translation. During his time at
NUS, he taught GE6223 (Translating Science into Policy), GE3245 (Urban
Tropical Ecology and Environmental Conservation in Southeast Asia),
ENV3101 (Environmental Challenges: Asian Case Studies I), ENV3102
(Environmental Challenges: Asia Case Studies II), and ENV3202 (BES
Internship Programme). Beyond teaching, he helped set up a conservation
internship programme in Timor-Leste as well supported the management of a marine protected area
around the Koh Rong Archipelago, Cambodia.
Dr. Jesse Hastings is a certified SCUBA diver as well as private pilot. These skills have enabled him
to see the natural world from above as well as from below, and become more dedicated to its
protection.

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References
Evans, T., Arpels, M., and T. Clements. 2012. “Pilot REDD Activities in Cambodia expected to
improved access to forest resource use rights and land tenure for local communities. “ In Lessons
about land tenure, forest governance, and REDD+: Case studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin
America, edited by L. Naughton-Treves and C. Day, 73-82. Madison Wisconsin USA: UW-
Madison Land Tenure Center.
FAO. 2015. “Global Forest Resource Assessment 2015: How Are the World’s Forests Changing?”
Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. www.fao.org/forest-
resources-assessment/en/.
Hosonuma, N., M. Herold, V. De Sy, R.S. De Fries, M. Brockhaus, L. Verchot, A. Angelsen, and E.
Romijn. 2012. “An Assessment of Deforestation and Forest Degradation Drivers in Developing
Countries.” Environmental Research Letters 7 (4): 1–12.
IIED. 2015. “Markets and Payments for Ecosystem Services.” London, UK: International Institute
for Environment and Development. www.iied.org/markets-payments-for-environmental-services.
IUCN. 2008. Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Edited by N. Dudley.
Gland, Switzerland: International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/guidelines_for_applying_protected_area_management_categories.pd
f.
Juffe-Bignoli, D., S. Bhatt, S. Park, A. Eassom, E.M.S. Belle, R. Murti, C. Muyck, et al. 2014. “Asia
Protected Planet 2014.” Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC. http://www.unep-wcmc.org/resources-
and-data/protected-planet-report-2014.
Lim, J. 2015. “Supermarkets in Singapore Pull Plug on Haze-Linked Firm’s Products.” Straits Times,
October 8. www.straitstimes.com/singapore/supermarkets-pull-plug-on-haze-linked-firms-
products.
Linkie, M., S. Sloan, R. Kasia, D. Kiswayadi, and W. Azmi. 2014. “Breaking the Vicious Circle of
Illegal Logging in Indonesia.” Conservation Biology 28 (4): 1023–33.
MCPFE. 2013. “Resolution H1: General Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Forests in
Europe.” Helsinki, Finland: Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe.
http://www.foresteurope.org/docs/MC/MC_helsinki_resolutionH1.pdf.
MND. 2013. “Land Use Plan 2030.” Singapore: Ministry of National Development.
www.mnd.gov.sg/LandUsePlan/.
O’Dempsey, T. 2014. “Singapore’s Changing Landscape since C. 1800.” In Nature Contained:
Environmental Histories of Singapore, edited by T. Barnard, 328. Singapore: NUS Press Pte Ltd.
Saatchi, S.S., N.L. Harris, S. Brown, M. Lefsky, E.T. Mitchard, W. Salas, B.R. Zutta, et al. 2011.
“Benchmark Map of Forest Carbon Stocks in Tropical Regions across Three Continents.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (24): 9899–9904.
United Nations. 2015. “Sustainable Development Goals.” New York, NY: United Nations.
sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs.
UN-REDD. 2015. “About REDD+.” Geneva, Switzerland. www.un-redd.org/aboutredd.
WWF. 2011. “Living Forests Report.” Gland, Switzerland: World Wide Fund for Nature.
http://wwf.panda.org/
Yeang, D. 2010. Tenure rights and benefit sharing arrangements for REDD: A case study of two
REDD pilot projects in Cambodia. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen University and
Research Center.
Yeang, D., Chhun, D., and P. Ngoun. 2015. “Local community perspective on REDD+ benefit
sharing: A case study from a REDD+ demonstration project in Cambodia.” Cambodian Journal of
Natural History 2015 (1).

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 Geography Digest
2016 Issue 1: Article 2

Articles written by and for geographers

By Dr Godfrey Yeung (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore)

Developed in collaboration with Geography Unit, Humanities Branch, CPDD 2, Ministry of Education

Understanding Global
Production Networks (GPNs)
Do you know where your mobile phones come from? The country of origin (where the phone is
manufactured) may not matter to you; however, the location of specific production processes could
have a profound impact on the industrial development of a particular area and the extent of its
integration within the globalised world.

The Changing Geographies of Manufacturing

Production networks incorporate different production stages based on research and development
(R&D), product design, the exploration of raw materials and minerals, as well as the manufacture of
parts and components, which all lead to the final assembly of a product before it is distributed and
eventually sold to consumers.
Manufacturing industries used to be integrated horizontally or vertically to gain economies of scale
and/or scope as well as to secure the supply of parts and components. In horizontal integration, a
firm incorporates the pertinent industrial sub-sectors in-house, while in the case of vertical
integration a single firm (conglomerate) conducts all the processes, from R&D to in-house
production.
The conglomerate mode of production is no longer financially viable in the globalised era because
production costs in developed countries are rising and the location of manufacturing activities is
becoming footloose, partly due to the advancement of information, manufacturing, and transportation
technologies which allow different production processes to be located in different parts of the world.
Manufacturing activities are thus increasingly fragmented, with producers specialising in specific
parts and components, while the brand name holders focus on higher value-added design and
marketing the final products.
The networks of firms, the functions that they perform, and their relative economic (power)
relationships in the various stages of production in different areas are of major research interest to
economic geographers. Can Asian firms, like Flextronics (Flex), Foxconn and other major sub-
contractors, upgrade their production technologies to maintain their competitiveness and not just be
the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or original design manufacturers (ODMs) for global
brand name product providers in consumer electronics, from mobile phones to personal computers?
For policy makers, the important issue is which parts of the production network are undertaken
locally, as the configuration of international production and the ability of local firms to capture value
is crucial for sustainable economic development.

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Introducing the Global Production Network Framework

To address these important questions, economic geographers (at the NUS) have developed the
Global Production Network (GPN), an analytical framework which allows us to examine how local
firms may be able to develop as strategic suppliers and integrate into the global economy (“plug-in
the GPN”) through technological and contractual linkages with global brand name product/service
providers (called “lead firms”).
Instead of the state-centric approach where the state is the explanatory factor for industrial
development (e.g. in East Asia), the GPN analytical framework focuses on the roles of actors in the
establishment of “strategic coupling” between lead firms and their strategic suppliers in order to
reveal the shifting realities of globalisation and uneven distribution of value between the countries of
production and consumption. In the GPN analysis, actors include firm and non-firm actors (such as
states, civil society, the labour market and consumers), and the examination of strategic coupling
includes the governance of contractual relationships and technological linkages between various firm
and non-firm actors.

GPNs and the Holistic Analysis of Regional Development

Different from the conventional economic analysis which highlights the inherent regional advantages
where factor endowments (such as abundant natural resources and labour) determine the comparative
advantages and the subsequent rigid interpretation of globalisation processes, the analytical approach
of GPN highlights the spatial asymmetrical capture of value-added in various manufacturing
activities across space, as manufacturing activities, core knowledge, and technologies are still
ultimately controlled by various transnational corporations (TNCs) and their strategic partners. This
reconciles the continuous divergence of growth between developed and developing countries despite
the massive relocation of labour-intensive manufacturing industries to developing countries since the
1970s.
Assembly of smart phones is a typical example. Although Foxconn and another two major OEMs
have been able to increase their global market share of smart phone from 19% in 2001 to over 70%
to date, their share of labour (assembly) costs remains unchanged, at around 2% (US$10) of the
phone’s recommended retail price (RRP) of US$550 (Table 1). The export of each phone to the US
adds to the Sino-US trade deficit (and its subsequent disputes) but only 4.4% (US$10) of US$229
export value (the estimated factory cost of a phone) is retained in the Chinese economy, while the
global brand name mobile phone provider retains at least 61% (US$334) of the phone’s RRP in the
American economy. From this perspective, international trade statistics based on the concept of
country of origin (country of assembly in this case) per se is no longer meaningful for the analysis of
economic development as it is unable to capture the geographies of value capture and retention in the
globalised world.

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Global Production Networks 13

Activities Locations Value (US$) Share of RRP

Design / marketing US $321 58.4%
US $13 2.4%
Japan $3 0.5%
S Korea $26 4.7%
Suppliers of components
Taiwan $3 0.5%
the EU $6 1.1%
Others $29 5.3%
Non-labour cost of
Worldwide $120 21.8%
materials for inputs
China $10 1.8%
Direct labour
Others $19 3.5%
RRP $550 100%

Table 1: Breakdown of value-added in a smart phone

Source: Adopted from Kraemer, Linden & Dedrick, 2011

Different from the conventional argument where global TNCs dominate local suppliers in developing
countries (scenario A in Figure 1), GPN adopts an actor-centric analytical approach to examine the
roles and impacts of various actors, from formal state regulations, informal work practices in specific
countries – including the role of labour/trade unions in civil society – and the interdependence
between lead firms and their strategic suppliers, and the strategic contractual relationships and
technological linkages between developed and developing countries.

High
scenario B*

*
rioB
a
en
sc
Value-capture

rioA
a
io C

en
io B

sc
nar

nar
sce

Strategic coupling
sce

Brand name product

providers

Local suppliers

Low Technological capability

High
Figure 1: Technological capability and value-capture of brand name product providers and their local
suppliers (Source: Author)
Source: Author

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Global Production Networks 14

Furthermore, instead of the simplistic control of TNCs over suppliers in developing countries, the
GPN framework accounts for the possibility that selected local firms could reduce the gaps in their
technological capabilities in relation to TNCs. Local OEMs that sell their products to TNCs to be
marketed under the TNCs’ brands could develop into dominant local ODMs and spearhead the
global (re)organisation of production networks through their manufacturing capacities and
technological skills as long as there is a strategic coupling between the supplier’s R&D and
manufacturing capabilities and capacities, regional institutions and lead firms (as moved from
scenario B to B* in Figure 1).

‘Catching Up’ or ‘Falling Behind’ by Local Suppliers

The ability of local firms to establish this strategic coupling (governance of contractual relationships
and technological linkages) is determined by their internal manufacturing capabilities and external
contractual relationships with the lead firms.
Internally, the capacity of local firms to capture the value of GPNs is partially determined by their
ability to utilise local (human and natural) resources and the corresponding supporting institutional
environment, including government policies.
Externally, the dynamic governance of contractual relationships and technological linkages between
lead firms and their suppliers partly determine whether a (technological) partnership could be formed
between lead firms and capable suppliers, and whether such suppliers could upgrade their production
processes and thus eventually contribute to regional development in terms of the employment of
skilled engineers and other supporting industrial workers. The subsequent capacity of local firms to
capture value by their engagement in the GPN has a profound effect on industrial and regional
economic development.
The ‘catching up’ of local suppliers can be illustrated by a specific upstream segment of the mobile
phone’s GPN – glass cover (Figure 2). All modern smartphones have protective glass covers to
improve their usability and durability. The glass cover’s GPN incorporates three major processes: the
exploration and processing of raw materials (silica and aluminosilicate); the manufacture of glass
(through melting raw materials at high temperatures); and the processing of glass cover (cutting and
polishing glass into specific shapes then applying anti-smudge coatings, laminating or chemically
strengthening it; curving the glass for specific higher-end model); before it’s assembly by LCD panel
manufacturers.
Although largely unknown to the general public, Biel Crystal and Lens Technology are able to break
through the dominance of suppliers based in developed countries as two of the leading global
suppliers of glass cover. Both companies have similar histories of starting as family-run small
manufacturers of glass cover for watches. Biel Crystal, a subsidiary of Fuji Crystal, was established
in 1986 in Hong Kong, while Lens Technology was established in Shenzhen in southern China in
2003. Both companies have been able to upgrade their production capabilities and capacities from
manufacturing quality watch lenses to become the strategic suppliers of the glass cover used in
laptops, tablets and mobile devices (including smartphones).
This functional upgrading of capabilities for glass cover manufacturing has required both companies
to develop new and high value-added functions to increase the overall skill content of their
manufacturing activities. Partly based on their expertise in making high quality glass (such as
sapphire crystal), they have been able to prepare sheets of raw glass from other suppliers (such as
Corning Inc.) and fashion them into (touch-sensitive) protective covers for portable electronic
devices at huge volume and at competitive prices. Biel Crystal employs 60,000 workers in Shenzhen

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and Huizhou in Guangdong province and can manufactures 60 million pieces of high-end cover
glass. With 75,000 skilled workers operating in multiple shifts with their precision manufacturing
equipment at three factories in Changsha in Hunan province in China, Lens Technology were able to
manufacture a billion touch-sensitive glass screens, each refined to a fraction of a millimetre, in
2015.

Exploration & processing

Glass manufacturing Assembly of glass cover Further assembly
of raw materials

Cutting & polishing

Silica
Coating
Toughening
Melting Laminating or LCD panel
Aluminosilicate & (for Testing
chemical strengthening manufacturers
other chemical added strength)
Curving
substances
(for 3-D glass)

Major suppliers:
LG Display (S Korea)
Corning Inc (US) Biel Crystal (China)
Worldwide Sharp Display (Japan)
Asahi Glass (Japan) Lens Technology (China)
Japan Display (Japan)
Schott AG (Germany)

Source: AuthorFigure 2: An upstream segment of mobile phone GPN – Glass cover

Source: Author
Nonetheless, local firms could be delinked from the GPNs if they were unable to maintain a good
match between their technological capabilities (such as the next generation organic light emitting
diode screens), manufacturing capacities (economies of scale to keep unit costs competitive) and
changes in market demands or the rise of newer technologies (from scenarios B* to C in Figure 1).
For instance, the Taiwanese-financed Wintek Group had to close two of its plants down in southern
China in 2014 due to a change in the supplier of touchscreens by a major brand name mobile phone
provider. This resulted in the redundancy of 7,000 workers and US$961 million of debt to various
banks and suppliers in China.

Questions and Answers

1. Can the government create a GPN?

Industrial policies could provide a favourable environment for the development of an industrial
sector with incentives (such as a lower profit tax or even allowances for R&D) and develop
infrastructures for entrepreneurs, but the government in a capitalist society could not create a GPN
simply by picking the “winners” and “losers” in the form of priority industries. A GPN for a specific
industrial sector is developed through firm-(multiple) actors’ synergies generated by the strategic
technological and contractual linkages between (local) suppliers and the global brand name
product/service providers.

2. Why is the understanding of GPN important for the Singaporean economy?

The Economic Development Board (EDB), Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and other agencies
in Singapore are taking a pro-active approach to improving the investment and trade environment in
Singapore. Government policies play an important role in the improvement of infrastructures and the

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provision of skilled labour (through the investment in higher education, etc.) but this is not sufficient
for the development of a GPN. This is one of the reasons why the state-centric approach of the
developmental state can provide a good explanation for the rise of Singapore (along with other East
Asian countries) in the 1970-1990s, but it is unable to explain the recent economic development in
Singapore and other Asian countries satisfactorily. By adopting a holistic analytical approach, the
GPN examines the roles of firms (entrepreneurs) and non-firm actors (government agencies and the
labour market etc.) for the development of an industry and unpacks the specific conditions that could
contribute to the establishment of specific strategic technological and contractual linkages between
(local) suppliers and the global brand name product/service providers. This knowledge could lead to
government policies for sustainable economic development in Singapore.

Conclusion
In a word, GPN analysis explains the strategic coupling between lead firms and their strategic
suppliers when there is a good match between their production capacities and technological
capabilities. The continuation of contractual relationships between lead firms and their strategic
suppliers is determined by the capabilities of actors (especially lead firms and their suppliers) to
maintain a good match in the face of changing market demand and developing new technologies,
which could result in their decoupling/delinking, and the re-establishment of such linkages could
result in the recoupling between lead firms and their original suppliers.
Considering the roles of non-firm actors, government policies can improve the investment
environment and facilitate international trade, partly through multilateral or bilateral Free Trade
Agreements (FTAs), e.g., the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the recent
conclusion of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), etc. Civil society and other international
organisations could have an impact on the (continuation of) strategic coupling between lead firms
and their strategic suppliers. For instance, civil society has highlighted the unsafe workplace
environment in some major China-based suppliers of smartphone parts for years, eventually leading
to the establishment of ethical and environmental standards (under the heading of corporate social
responsibility) by global mobile phones suppliers. (Chinese suppliers paradoxically have to absorb a
large proportion of the implementation costs of these standards due to their relatively limited
bargaining power). In other words, non-firm actors (state, civil society, international organisations)
can facilitate but alone, they are unable to develop the strategic coupling between lead firms and
their strategic suppliers.
As the founding directors and core members of the Global Production Networks Centre at the
National University of Singapore (GPN@NUS, http://gpn.nus.edu.sg/), economic geographers at the
NUS are at the forefront of research into the dynamic relationships between brand name
product/service providers and their strategic suppliers, as well as the subsequent competitiveness of
the Singaporean economy.

Online Resources
1. GPN@NUS: http://gpn.nus.edu.sg/

2. MIT Industrial Performance Center: http://ipc.mit.edu/

3. Capturing the Gains: http://www.capturingthegains.org/

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Definition of Key Terms

GPN: An analytical framework focusing on the roles of (economic) actors in the establishment of
contractual and technological linkages between global brand name product/service providers and
their strategic suppliers/partners in order to reveal the uneven distribution of value capture and
retention between the countries of production and consumption.
Lead firms: Global brand name product/service providers, normally transnational corporations based
in developed countries and with expertise in product design and development and the marketing of
their products/services. They normally utilise suppliers (in developing countries) for the provision of
various parts and components and their assembly into final products.
ODMs: Original Design Manufacturers are strategic suppliers or partners of global brand name
product providers. Instead of simply supplying parts and components, they have the technological
capabilities to design specific parts and components and/or assemble products for lead firms.
OEMs: Original Equipment Manufacturers are suppliers and assemblers of parts and components for
global brand name product providers. They are classified within different tiers, e.g., the first-tier
suppliers have the closest contractual and technological relationships with the global brand name
product providers, and they normally sub-contract parts of the contracts to other, second-tier
suppliers.
Strategic coupling: A mutually dependent process involving shared interests and cooperation
between two or more actors who co-operate for a common strategic objective.

Getting to know the faculty: Department of Geography (NUS)

About the Author
Dr Godfrey Yeung is an Associate Professor of Economic Geography at
the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore. After
obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1998, he worked
at the Universities of Cambridge and Sussex before joining the NUS in
2007. He is the Associate Editor of Singapore Journal of Tropical
Geography, and the Deputy Chair of the Politics, Economies, And Space
(PEAS) research group in the Department.
In addition to financial geographies, his main research interests include
foreign direct investment, international trade and regional development in
China. He is working with his research collaborators at the University of
California, Los Angeles and the Peking University to examine the
trajectory of industrial upgrading and its impacts on regional development
in China. As a Standing Committee member at the GPN@NUS, he is working with his colleagues at
the Departments of Economics and Political Science to research the Global Production Networks in
automobile sector and its impacts in the economic development in Asia.
In addition to two undergraduate courses that he is currently teaching at the university – GE2101
Methods and Practices in Geography (a compulsory module on research methods for Geography
Majors), and GE3235 Geographies of Development (an elective module) – he will launch a new
elective module Greater China for Geography Honours students in the 2016-17 academic year.
More details about Dr Yeung can be found online at http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/geoykyg/

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References
Coe, N. M., Hess, M., Yeung, H. W-c., Dicken, P. and Henderson, J. (2004) “‘Globalizing’ regional
development: A global production networks perspective.” Transactions of the Institute of
British Geographers, 29(4): 468-484.
Coe, N. M. & Yeung, H. W-c. (2015) Global Production Networks: Theorizing Economic
Development in an Interconnected World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Humphrey, J. & Schmitz, H. (2002) “How does insertion in global value chains affect upgrading in
industrial clusters?, Regional studies, 36(9), 1017-1027.
Kaplinsky, R. & Morris, M. (2001) A Handbook for Value Chain Research. (Vol. 113). Ottawa:
IDRC.
Kraemer, K. L., Linden, G. & Dedrick, J. (2011) Capturing Value in Global Networks: Apple’s iPad
and iPhone. http://www.pcic.merage.uci.edu/papers/2011/Value_iPad_Iphone.pdf

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 Geography Digest
2016 Issue 1: Article 3

Articles written by and for geographers

By Dr Harvey Neo (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore)

Developed in collaboration with Geography Unit, Humanities Branch, CPDD 2, Ministry of Education

Food Resources
What is Food Shortage?
At its simplest, food shortage is a situation where people, in a given locale, do not have access to
adequate amounts of safe and nutritious food to live healthily. This implies that food shortage is said
to exist even when the people do not go hungry but are otherwise consuming food that give little
nutrition. Food shortage can occur as a result of production failure, distribution lapses or problems in
the consumption sphere (for example, insufficient money to purchase food).

What are the Geographies of Food Shortage?

Food shortage is a spatial and temporal phenomenon with complex social, political and
environmental causes. It is a spatial-temporal (i.e. time and place dependent) phenomenon because
not all places will experience food shortages at the same time. It is also rare to find places that suffer
from chronic food shortage. Furthermore, even when a place faces a food shortage, it is invariably
the disadvantaged groups that bear most of its negative impacts.
To be sure, at a global scale, humans have produced more food than ever before, sufficient to feed
everyone on the planet. In other words, there is no food availability deficit in the world presently.
Yet, due to reasons of cost and poor access to available food, food shortages in pockets of places
remain a critical issue.
The direct consequence of food shortages is undernourishment and this problem is most acute in
Asia, as measured by the number of people who are undernourished. It is estimated that globally
more than 800 million people are undernourished, with two thirds living in Asia. South Asia, in
particular, is the region that has the most number of undernourished (281 million). Populous Asian
countries like China and India continue to face the problem of hunger and undernourishment- the
direct result of rapid development in many Asian countries aimed at bolstering their economy. Figure
1 shows the share of undernourished populations by region.

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Food Resources 20

Figure 1: The changing distribution of hunger in the world: numbers and shares of undernourished
people by region, 1990-92 and 2014-16
Source: World Resources Institute (The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2015)

What are the Causes of Food Shortage?

In the past, food shortages were usually attributed to unexpected crop failure as a result of inclement
weather such as droughts. It is believed that such crop failures are unfortunate acts of nature that are
difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.
While many countries still face the problem of year-to-year fluctuations of harvests, we now know
that crop failures or diminishing returns are outcomes of a complex set of circumstances. For
example, climate change is said to have caused more frequent and abnormal weather patterns such as
increased risk of droughts and unexpectedly intense storms which can erode the top soil. Suffice to
say, climate change itself is undergirded by a myriad of global production and consumption patterns
across numerous sectors (e.g. heavy industry, transport and energy production) which often have
little direct link to the small scale farmers who suffer the impacts of global warming.
On the other hand, problems such as development-induced displacement directly exacerbate the
problem of food shortage. It is estimated that as many as two million people (many of whom are
small scale farmers) were displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China. Similar
displacements can be seen in Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia where farmers are forced to relocate
due to construction of dams and large scale plantation such as rubber and oil palm. Although
displaced farmers are often provided with alternative plots of land, many are left with a reduced land
area and decreased soil fertility in the land they were given as compensation. In many cases, many
chose to give up farming entirely. Such displacements thus are likely to impact on food security,
food availability and the livelihoods of rural people.

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Food Resources 21

What is the Role of Technology in Addressing Food Shortage?

Notwithstanding such displacements, at the global level, the percentage of agriculture land as a
proportion of all land area has remained constant, at about 12% in 2005 and unchanged from 1995.
Such a figure, however simplifies a complex reality. For one, it does not imply that the available
space for growing food crop has remained constant because non-staple crops such as rubber, oil palm
and cotton are all categorized as agriculture. Indeed, figures from Indonesia and Vietnam have
suggested that the proportion of arable land devoted to plantation agriculture has increased in recent
years. For example, Table 1 below shows how the agricultural sector in Indonesia has shifted
dramatically from staples to non-staples.

Agricultural product and amount

Year (in million tonnes, rounded to the nearest million)
1st 2nd 3rd
1974 Rice (22) Sugarcane (13) Cassava (13)
Oil palm, fruit (127) Oil palm, kernel (29)
2014 *oil extracted from the Rice (71) *oil extracted from the
palm fruit palm kernel
Table 1: Top 3 agricultural products in Indonesia, 1974 & 2014

While all signs point to a general reduction in land area for the production of staple food crop in
Asia, technology has actually allowed the output to keep up with the demand. Advances in
agricultural technology, first seen in the mid-1970s during the Asian Green Revolution, have
continued unabated today. Multinational corporations and national research institutions have
invested heavily in GM technology. In particular, the research has centered on developing drought
and salt resistant maize and rice. Other research fronts include creating strains of staple crops that
will utilize fewer fertilizers, thereby cutting down costs of production.
In the face of growing population, increasing per capita consumption of food and reduced land area
for food production, it is fair to say that the use of technology in agriculture have averted a potential
global food availability deficit. Hence, the persistence of food shortage in especially impoverished
communities is due to the high costs of food. According to the FAO Food Price Index, from 2005 to
2015, the prices of cereals (a category of food that includes maize and rice) have increased 50%.

How does Food Wastage Contribute towards Rising Food Prices and Food Shortage?
One of the reasons for such rising prices is food wastage. In other words, not all of the foods
produced are actually consumed. In developing countries, food wastage (or more accurately, “food
loss”) often occurs at the production end where in the process of harvesting, transporting and
packaging, food goes bad. The United Nations FAO estimates that the lack of an efficient supply
chain leads to an astonishing 40% of food being lost, post-harvest. For the developed countries,
consumer food wastage has become a serious problem due to their relative affluence. The per capita
consumer food wastage in Europe and North America is estimated to be 95-115 kg/year. In all, food
wastage in the industrialized nations is said to be as high as 222 million tons a year. Examples of
food wastage goes beyond throwing out cooked food that the consumers cannot finish, it also
includes throwing away fresh produce that exhibit blemishes that more affluent consumers refused to
purchase, even though they are still perfectly edible. Figure 2 illustrates the per capita food losses
and waste (kg/year) for different regions and Figure 3 illustrates the percentage breakdown of waste
per region, along different points of the food chain, from production to consumption.

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Figure 2: Per capita food losses and waste in different regions

Source: FAO (Global food losses and food waste – Extent, causes and prevention, 2011)

Figure 3: Percentage of production and storage losses declines and that of consumer waste increases
(percent of kcal lost or wasted)
Data Source: World Resources Institute (Creating a Sustainable Food Future, 2013)
Clearly, solving the problems of food loss and food wastage will likely and directly help stabilize the
prices of food, as well as access to food into more remote areas. The post-harvesting sector in
developing countries hence requires technical assistance and monetary aid to modernize their supply
chain management. While combating consumer food wastage in more affluent societies may not
directly and immediately bring down the prices and accessibility of food for the undernourished, it is
nonetheless the ethical thing to do.

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How does Food Wastage Occur in Singapore?

In Singapore, about 800,000 tons of food is wasted annually. The costs of such wastage go beyond
the money used to buy the food. As mentioned earlier, food waste contributes to rising prices of
foods. In addition, any food that is produced contributes to carbon emission and it has been argued
that dealing with food waste and food loss has significant environmental costs.
There are several ways to deal with consumer food waste. The first is simply to improve food
management practices. In Singapore, since 2014, hotels with more than 200 rooms and large
shopping malls are required to report on their food waste data as well as to implement waste
reduction plans. In addition, research is underway in Singapore to utilize food waste to generate
energy, ensuring that the food does not really go to “waste”. Supermarkets can also embark on
campaigns to educate their customers that produce that does not look “perfect” are still edible and
safe to consume. Finally, to prevent good food from being thrown away, some local non-
governmental organizations have also collected unsold confectionary from bakeries to distribute to
the poor and needy.
In conclusion, the causes and impacts of food shortage are multiple, spatially varied and require
immense effort to resolve. As Singapore gets increasingly affluent, food wastage is likely to be an
issue that demands our continuous attention to build a more sustainable country. In addition, it is
equally likely that the minority of poor families in Singapore will still face food shortages. Globally,
it is impossible to ensure that not a single person goes hungry, but the current situation where more
than 800 million people across the world are undernourished is surely untenable and unconscionable.

Feeding the Hungry Dragon

Already the most populous country in the world with 1.35 billion (2013 figures), China announced in
2015 that it will relax its “One Child Policy” to allow couples to have two children if either the
husband or the wife is an only child. This shift in policy will ensure an increase in population growth
in China in the very near future.

China has had a long and checkered history in trying to feed its population. In the past, widespread
starvation in China was invariably the result of misguided national policies. For example, the “Great
Leap Forward”, which started in the late 1950s and continued to the early 1960s was a socio-
economic campaign initiated by the Communist government to accelerate China’s development.
Critics of the campaign argued that it disrupted the lives of rural communities to the extent that
agricultural productivity dropped drastically.

In recent years, a combination of large scale infrastructural development and urban expansion has
seen the reduction of agricultural land in China even though only about 15% of China’s total land
area is suitable for agriculture to begin with (although about 40% of the land is suitable for
pasturing).

China has responded to this situation by increasing domestic output of food crops, through
aggressive use of technology, exporting more food from other countries or outright leasing lands
from foreign governments for agriculture. Despite its runaway economic development in the past few
decades, China remains a country of great socio-economic diversity. Food shortages still occur in
more remote parts of the country, especially in the western regions as well as in the mountainous
areas. A significant number of its population still suffers from undernourishment because they are
unable to access cheap and nutritious food.

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As parts of the country face such challenges, the highly developed cities in the eastern part of China
(such as Shanghai and Beijing) are experiencing increasing amount of food wastage, a trend
increasingly seen in many developed countries, including Singapore.

Useful Websites / Resources

1. “First taste of cocoa in Ivory Coast”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEN4hcZutO0

2. “Child Hunger is an Everyday Struggle”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_-hhS5pUZQ

3. “Poor in Singapore can't afford food”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSEB8P3DAnk

4. “The Multinational Corporations Stealing Huge Tracts Of Ethiopian Farmland”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeQFCBFYlwY

5. “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Food Waste”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8xwLWb0lLY

6. “Feeding Nine Billion”, series of 9 videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raSHAqV8K9c

7. “Food loss and waste facts”, series of 15 seconds Youtube videos by FAO
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzp5NgJ2-dK50tAKU7Vt49eiEwP4xFjNL

8. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Statistics Division)

http://faostat3.fao.org

9. “Food Loss and Food Waste” (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
http://www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/

10. Combating Waste (Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition)

http://www.barillacfn.com/en/position-paper/pp-combating-waste/

11. Reducing Food Loss and Waste (World Resources Institute)

http://www.wri.org/publication/reducing-food-loss-and-waste

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Getting to know the faculty: Department of Geography (NUS)

About the Author
Dr Harvey Neo is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography,
National University of Singapore where he has been based since obtaining
his Ph.D from the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University
(Massachusetts) in 2007.
His main research interests include geographies of food, the political
economy of livestock industry, the politics of nature and green urban
development. He teaches a variety of courses in NUS, including “Nature and
Society” and “Global Political Ecologies”. He hopes that through education,
everyone can develop greater empathy towards the marginalized of the
world.
More details about Dr Neo can be found online at http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/geoneoh/

Geography Digest 2016 Issue 1: Article 3

© 2016 Curriculum Planning and Development Division 2
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