Forest mgmt ‘fails to reward women’

KATHMANDU, JUN 24 -

Despite the fact that women have played a vital role in forest resources management in the country, they are not rewarded equitably for their contribution as their male counterparts.

A recent assessment carried out on ‘Gender and Women’s Exclusion in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD plus)’ states that women’s representation and participation in the institutional structure of REDD plus intitiatives is found less than 10 percent in the country.

REDD plus, a mechanism backed by the United Nations, was initiated to help developing countries get incentives by conserving forests and reducing carbon emissions that cause climate change.

“Women are important stakeholders in forest-related activities and have been successfully playing the role of forest users, managers, conservation leaders and farmers in the country. However, the existing policy documents and initiatives, including the Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP), the REDD plus Interim Strategy and REDD plus pilot projects, have neglected and undermined the role of women and their rights over natural resources like forests,” said Dibya Gurung, one of the researchers and coordinator at the Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture & Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) Nepal.

The R-PP is a document designed to assist a country prepare itself for involvement in the REDD plus.

WOCAN Nepal in collaboration with the Himalayan Grassroots Women’s Natural Resource Management Association conducted the assessment in February this year to asses the extent to which gender issues and women’s representation are addressed in the existing REDD plus initiatives.

“The assessment points out that REDD plus initiatives do not have strong mechanisms to ensure benefit, specially from the community forestry in the country, for women,” Gurung said. The assessment further says there were no gender analyses or studies conducted to help prepare the R-PP and REDD plus Interim Strategy.  For instance, out of 22 studies proposed in the REDD plus Interim Strategy, none included information on gender studies.

Similarly, though the R-PP and the REDD plus Interim Strategy claim that their decision making processes were highly consultative and a large number of civil society organisations from the national to community level were consulted, only three out of total 17 consultations and workshops were targeted specifically for women.

Unfortunately, outcomes of these three discussions were not incorporated in the R-PP. “There is a need to address women’s issues and ensure their meaningful participation to meet principles and objectives of the REDD plus initiatives in the country in future,” Gurung said.