Women, men and the management of forests and landscapes

WOMEN, MEN AND THE MANAGEMENT OF FORESTS AND LANDSCAPESAmy Duchelle – Scientist – Climate Change, Energy & Low Carbon DevelopmentEvent: “Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Social Inclusion” Cancun, 14th December 2016

STRONG GENDER FOCUS IN NEW CIFOR STRATEGY• Rural women play key

role in forestry sector in many developing countries

• Yet gender inequities remain pervasive in governance of forests and landscapes

• Undermines local resource conditions, and constrains ability of women to realize full range of capabilities

foreststreesagroforestry.org/shedding-light-on-opportunities-and-challenges-for-rural-women/

GENDER INTEGRATION ACROSS RESEARCH THEMES• Effect of women’s

participation on local resource conditions

• Effect of migration on women’s influence in forestry decision-making

• Effect of agribusiness expansion on women’s livelihoods

• Nature of gender inclusion in REDD+

• Role of women in timber value chains

1. GENDER COMPOSITION OF NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT GROUPS

Systematic map: provides an overview of existing evidence

www1.cifor.org/ebf/

STUDY SELECTION• 11,069 records by title/abstract => 113 for full

review => 17 studies included in systematic map

Leisher et al. 2016

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

• All studies identified improvements in natural resource governance – and 3 identified conservation benefits – when women participated in management groups

• Other influencers: landlessness, caste, wealth, education, political/economic inequality

• Substantial gaps in the evidence base, yet clear priorities for future research (work in regions beyond South Asia, identifying causal pathways for theory of change etc.)

Leisher et al. 2016

COMPLEMENTARY EVIDENCE

• Determinants of women’s participation: less exclusive institutions, more education, less income inequality across genders

• Institutional outcomes associated with women’s participation: less disruptive conflict, but little effect on perceived fairness of rules

• Mixed evidence of environmental outcomes associated with women’s participation

2. POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENT NETWORK (PEN)

• Large, tropics-wide collection of detailed, high-quality &comparable data by PhD students on the poverty-forest(environment) nexus, coordinated by CIFOR, with partners

• Most comprehensive analysis of poverty-forest linkages to date

(24 countries ─ 364 villages ─ 8,000+ households)www1.cifor.org/pen

MYTHS & REALITIES ABOUT MEN, WOMEN & FOREST PRODUCT USE

IS HARVESTING OF FOREST PRODUCTS MAINLY UNDERTAKEN BY WOMEN?

• The data do not support this claim

• For unprocessed products, this claim only holds in Sub-Saharan Africa

• For processed products, it does not hold in any geographical location

Sunderland et al. 2014

DO WOMEN COLLECT PRIMARILY FOR SUBSISTENCE AND MEN FOR SALE?

• Both women and men collect predominantly for subsistence use, but …

• Men´s sale share is higher than women´s

• However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the share is almost equal

Sunderland et al. 2014

DO WOMEN COLLECT GREATER SHARE OF FOREST PRODUCTS FROM LANDS UNDER COMMON PROPERTY REGIMES THAN MEN?

• Vast majority of products for men and women collected under state property tenure regimes

• In global sample, proportion collected by men and women from common property is about the same

• Conventional claim holds for Latin America and Asia, but not for Africa

Sunderland et al. 2014

SUMMARY OF PEN GENDER FINDINGS• Large regional variation in both the shares of

forest products collected by women • Even after controlling for most of the factors

discussed in the literature, as well as differences in level of market integration, women in Africa collect a much larger share of forest products than women in Asia and Latin America

• Many of the claims that originate from the gender and forest literature do not hold using the PEN global data sample

• Men play a much more important and diverse role in the contribution of forest products to rural livelihoods than is often reported Sunderland et al. 2014

3. GLOBAL COMPARATIVE STUDY (GCS) ON REDD+

• 6 countries• 22 initiatives• 150 villages• 4,000

households

Comparison (Control)

REDD+ site(Intervention)

Before After

IMPACT

InterventionAfter

ControlAfter

InterventionBefore

ControlBefore

2010 / 2011 2013 / 2014

www.cifor.org/gcs

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN EARLY REDD+ IMPLEMENTATION

Higher knowledge of and participation in early REDD+ initiatives reported from (male-dominated) village focus groups compared to women’s focus groups

PARTICIPATION FINDINGS IN PHASE 2 (2013/14)

Larson et al. forthcoming, IUCN book

Knowledge of in

itiative

Decision to

implement

Design & Im

plementation

0

20

40

60

80

100 91%

63%51%

92%

76% 75%

Women Men

% fo

cus g

roup

s (n

=150

)

IMPACTS ON WELL-BEING

• Almost half of women’s focus groups said having own source of income was important for women’s well-being

• For those women who reported improved well-being in Phase 2, the second most common reason given (19% of villages) was gender equity/ women’s empowerment

• Nevertheless, overall, preliminary evidence shows REDD+ initiatives are not reducing – and in some cases appear to be widening – gender gaps

Larson et al. in prep

NET CHANGE IN WELLBEING BY TYPE OF FOCUS GROUP

Being located in a REDD+ site had a significant (p < .10) negative impact on women’s perceived wellbeing

REFLECTIONS ON COLLECTIVE FINDINGS

• Global comparative studies useful in understanding gendered patterns of natural resource management, since long-held gender assumptions hold true in certain contexts but not others

• Participation only partial solution to addressing women’s strategic needs in ways that could strengthen their position in forestry and conservation

• Time to re-frame the consideration of gender equality in forestry in terms of women's rights, rather than justifying women's inclusion on the grounds that it would lead to other beneficial outcomes

cifor.orgblog.cifor.orgForestsTreesAgroforestry.org

THANK YOU

www.cifor.org/gender/

a.duchelle@cgiar.org