Protesters walk in a Women's Day demonstration in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, March 6. Hundreds of people marched through the capital's downtown demanding more rights for women. (AP Photo)
Women are the main users of forests in developing countries – gathering food and firewood – but they continue to be sidelined in how the forests are managed despite years of efforts to mainstream their involvement, experts said ahead of International Women's Day on March 8.Research shows that greater involvement of women in forest management usuall y improves the condition and sustainability of the forests. The importance of this has taken on new significance with billions of dollars being pledged to protect and enhance the world's forests because of their role in slowing the rate of climate change.
"It is worrying that despite women's increasingly recognized contribution to forest management, they are not yet at the forefront of forestry decision-making," said Esther Mwangi, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research, which has its headquarters in Indonesia.
The United Nations has declared 2011 the International Year of Forests, which provides an excellent platform to revisit the challenges of promoting women's involvement in forestry, she said. "As governments rearrange their policies and create new regulations ahead of the implementation of programs for REDD+, women's involvement in decision-making in forest management and conservation should be a top priority."
REDD+ is a global mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as the conservation and sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
Climate change and deforestation have increased the workload of rural women, who are the primary users of forests and use them to source natural medicines as well as fuel-wood, food and water.
"The first challenge is to recognize women as agents of change. They cannot be seen only as users but as major decision-makers when it comes to conservation and sustainable use of forest," said Lorena Aguilar, Global Senior Gender Advisor at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "As the main users of forests, women need to be included in decision-making to ensure they get a fair share of the benefits. This means taking account of gender differences not only when planning projects but also when designing policy interventions that will affect forest communities."
While significant progress has been made in promoting the role of women in forest management at national and international policy levels, massive gaps remain in implementing these changes on the ground. Still, there are signs of hope. Participation of women has risen, as shown by an example from Nepal where the percentage of women and marginalized groups involved in community committees has grown from 27 percent to 45 percent. However, in many cases participation is limited to attendance and passive involvement with women sitting in silence while men make the calls on forest management.
Statements on the importance of engaging women in decision-making in the forestry sector alone are not enough, said Eve Crowley, Deputy Director, Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. "You need to have planning, you need to have resource allocations, you need to have capacities in implementation, and you need to have careful monitoring and evaluation."
In land tenure, for example, there needs to be an effective gender-sensitive programme with on-the-ground specifics to counter the historical, social and cultural factors that are biased in favor of men's control. Forest industries should allow wider access to employment for women taking into consideration their multiple responsibilities to care for their families.
An extensive review of gender and agroforestry in Africa, to be published by the World Agroforestry Centre in April 2011, found that women farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are still trapped at the production end of the value chain and it recommended governments, NGOs and the private sector to foster women entrepreneurs and strengthen their participation in farmers' groups.
Importantly, women's knowledge of and capacity to act on their rights must be strengthened. Such capacity is crucial to allow women to organize and be able to make demands for more involvement in decision-making processes in forest management and to ensure that rules and regulations are enforced.
The experts also said that it was important to increase the number of women in decision-making positions from the village level, through to local governments, central governments and forest-related agencies. It is also crucial to build and support networks and alliances among rural women, national and international advocacy groups.
The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) is a voluntary arrangement among 14 international organisations and secretariats with substantial programmes on forests. The CPF's mission is to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forest and strengthen long term political commitment to this end.
CPF members:
• Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)
• International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)
• Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD Secretariat)
• Global Environment Facility (GEF Secretariat)
• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD Secretariat)
• United Nations Forum on Forest (UNFF Secretariat)
• United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC Secretariat)
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
• World Bank (World Bank)
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Source: www.indigenouspeoplesissues.com
"It is worrying that despite women's increasingly recognized contribution to forest management, they are not yet at the forefront of forestry decision-making," said Esther Mwangi, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research, which has its headquarters in Indonesia.
The United Nations has declared 2011 the International Year of Forests, which provides an excellent platform to revisit the challenges of promoting women's involvement in forestry, she said. "As governments rearrange their policies and create new regulations ahead of the implementation of programs for REDD+, women's involvement in decision-making in forest management and conservation should be a top priority."
REDD+ is a global mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as the conservation and sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
Climate change and deforestation have increased the workload of rural women, who are the primary users of forests and use them to source natural medicines as well as fuel-wood, food and water.
"The first challenge is to recognize women as agents of change. They cannot be seen only as users but as major decision-makers when it comes to conservation and sustainable use of forest," said Lorena Aguilar, Global Senior Gender Advisor at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "As the main users of forests, women need to be included in decision-making to ensure they get a fair share of the benefits. This means taking account of gender differences not only when planning projects but also when designing policy interventions that will affect forest communities."
While significant progress has been made in promoting the role of women in forest management at national and international policy levels, massive gaps remain in implementing these changes on the ground. Still, there are signs of hope. Participation of women has risen, as shown by an example from Nepal where the percentage of women and marginalized groups involved in community committees has grown from 27 percent to 45 percent. However, in many cases participation is limited to attendance and passive involvement with women sitting in silence while men make the calls on forest management.
Statements on the importance of engaging women in decision-making in the forestry sector alone are not enough, said Eve Crowley, Deputy Director, Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. "You need to have planning, you need to have resource allocations, you need to have capacities in implementation, and you need to have careful monitoring and evaluation."
In land tenure, for example, there needs to be an effective gender-sensitive programme with on-the-ground specifics to counter the historical, social and cultural factors that are biased in favor of men's control. Forest industries should allow wider access to employment for women taking into consideration their multiple responsibilities to care for their families.
An extensive review of gender and agroforestry in Africa, to be published by the World Agroforestry Centre in April 2011, found that women farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are still trapped at the production end of the value chain and it recommended governments, NGOs and the private sector to foster women entrepreneurs and strengthen their participation in farmers' groups.
Importantly, women's knowledge of and capacity to act on their rights must be strengthened. Such capacity is crucial to allow women to organize and be able to make demands for more involvement in decision-making processes in forest management and to ensure that rules and regulations are enforced.
The experts also said that it was important to increase the number of women in decision-making positions from the village level, through to local governments, central governments and forest-related agencies. It is also crucial to build and support networks and alliances among rural women, national and international advocacy groups.
The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) is a voluntary arrangement among 14 international organisations and secretariats with substantial programmes on forests. The CPF's mission is to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forest and strengthen long term political commitment to this end.
CPF members:
• Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)
• International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)
• Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD Secretariat)
• Global Environment Facility (GEF Secretariat)
• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD Secretariat)
• United Nations Forum on Forest (UNFF Secretariat)
• United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC Secretariat)
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
• World Bank (World Bank)
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Source: www.indigenouspeoplesissues.com
Laws for women mere paper tigers
Madhu Kishwar
One of the great challenges for those concerned with strengthening women's rights in India is the alarming gap between legal prescriptions on women's issues and actual practices prevalent in society. Many people expect that as women become aware of their rights, they will inevitably move in the direction of following "modern laws" enacted for their benefit. However, there is growing evidence that even among the avante-garde elite groups of our country, social behaviour runs contrary to social legislation.
For example, ever since dowry was outlawed in 1961 through the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the practice has flourished in an unprecedented manner. Wedding expenditures have become more and more lavish. Several new amendments were made to the Act and the Indian Penal Code during the 1980's making dowry giving and taking a cognizable offence. And yet, the practice has spread to regions, castes and communities which did not have any such tradition. The biggest dowry transactions take place among the families of educated elites, especially those in high power positions in the government. High status families consider it an insult to send their daughters off to their husband's home "empty handed."
It is the same story with the law banning the use of sex determination tests (SDTs). In Delhi, SDTs invites jail terms for up to 5 years and a fine up to Rs. 100,000. And yet, the use of sex selective abortions has grown even as the law has been made increasingly stringent. This is obvious from the continuing sharp decline in sex ratio and drop in the birth rate of female babies, especially among the well-off. Doctors in the know tell you that the most persistent and desperate demand for these tests comes from senior government officers.
It is legitimate to ask: Why are these laws not followed by the parliamentarians who make them or by the police officers and judges who are supposed to implement them? I am certain that not one among the militant feminists who have campaigned to get such laws enacted can claim with honesty that in their own family circles they have successfully "abolished" the practice of dowry and in their own community families are not taking recourse to sex selective abortions.
A common response is to attribute the growing gap between social legislation and social practices to hypocrisy and double standards. When a law fails, the tendency is to blame its failure on the laxity of implementation machinery.
That is how all the failed laws are bolstered with more and more draconian provisions, while the original problem remains unsolved. Today, we are witnessing a severe backlash against feminist legislation because most of the draconian laws we have enacted lend themselves to easy misuse while genuine victims rarely manage to get justice through them. This is not to say, I support the present system of dowry, sex selective abortions or other injustices faced by women but simply to underscore the need for a more self critical and socially sensitive approach to legal reform and the need to create appropriate instruments of the state machinery that can implement social legislation with dignity and honesty.
Madhu Kishwar
One of the great challenges for those concerned with strengthening women's rights in India is the alarming gap between legal prescriptions on women's issues and actual practices prevalent in society. Many people expect that as women become aware of their rights, they will inevitably move in the direction of following "modern laws" enacted for their benefit. However, there is growing evidence that even among the avante-garde elite groups of our country, social behaviour runs contrary to social legislation.
For example, ever since dowry was outlawed in 1961 through the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the practice has flourished in an unprecedented manner. Wedding expenditures have become more and more lavish. Several new amendments were made to the Act and the Indian Penal Code during the 1980's making dowry giving and taking a cognizable offence. And yet, the practice has spread to regions, castes and communities which did not have any such tradition. The biggest dowry transactions take place among the families of educated elites, especially those in high power positions in the government. High status families consider it an insult to send their daughters off to their husband's home "empty handed."
It is the same story with the law banning the use of sex determination tests (SDTs). In Delhi, SDTs invites jail terms for up to 5 years and a fine up to Rs. 100,000. And yet, the use of sex selective abortions has grown even as the law has been made increasingly stringent. This is obvious from the continuing sharp decline in sex ratio and drop in the birth rate of female babies, especially among the well-off. Doctors in the know tell you that the most persistent and desperate demand for these tests comes from senior government officers.
It is legitimate to ask: Why are these laws not followed by the parliamentarians who make them or by the police officers and judges who are supposed to implement them? I am certain that not one among the militant feminists who have campaigned to get such laws enacted can claim with honesty that in their own family circles they have successfully "abolished" the practice of dowry and in their own community families are not taking recourse to sex selective abortions.
A common response is to attribute the growing gap between social legislation and social practices to hypocrisy and double standards. When a law fails, the tendency is to blame its failure on the laxity of implementation machinery.
That is how all the failed laws are bolstered with more and more draconian provisions, while the original problem remains unsolved. Today, we are witnessing a severe backlash against feminist legislation because most of the draconian laws we have enacted lend themselves to easy misuse while genuine victims rarely manage to get justice through them. This is not to say, I support the present system of dowry, sex selective abortions or other injustices faced by women but simply to underscore the need for a more self critical and socially sensitive approach to legal reform and the need to create appropriate instruments of the state machinery that can implement social legislation with dignity and honesty.
(The writer is a professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and the article appeared in the Times of India in 2010)
