International treaties and conferences now recognise the central role of women as caretakers of the natural world. Most societies and governments, however, have been slow to act when it comes to improving women’s conditions. They have also neglected the link between women and the environment.

A gender perspective analyses the basic structures maintaining the inequalities between women and men. Given the central role of women in managing natural resources, such an approach is crucial to sustainable development. But despite some recognition of women’s contributions and some projects targeting women, policies on natural resources have not incorporated gender issues.

The interaction of women with natural resources has important implications for biodiversity, desertification and water management. International agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification have taken account of gender issues, but action plans adopted by such agreements are yet to be translated into action.

A report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) describes the essential contributions of women to environmental conservation and management and sets out ways to incorporate gender issues into environmental policies in order to benefit both women and the environment.

The report describes how:

• In many countries women are at the forefront of campaigns to conserve natural resources: examples include India’s Chipko movement to protect forests and a scheme in Brazil to combat desertification.
• The situation of women is characterised by lack of ownership and control over land and resources, and limited access to education and services.
• Rural women contribute by providing food, fuel, medicinal remedies and necessary raw materials, but their traditional knowledge is being threatened by biodiversity loss and biopiracy (by pharmaceutical companies seeking to control use of medicinal plants).
• Severe environmental degradation, particularly in drylands, puts extra burdens on women, who are often left behind to run households when men migrate.
• Water is central to household and income-generating activities for women, but water shortage, pollution and other problems with access (land tenure, affordability) mean that gender issues are crucial to all projects and policies concerning water resources.

The commitments made at international agreements, particularly the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), need to be implemented. Specifically, UNEP argues for:

• gender analysis at organisational, programme and project levels in natural resources conservation and management, and implementation of their recommendations
• the preservation of women’s knowledge, along with the prevention of piracy and commercialisation of local and traditional knowledge
• eliminating the gender bias in staffing in organisations and programmes dealing with conservation and sustainable development
• ensuring the full and active participation of women together with gender equality in natural resource management, research, planning and decision-making at all levels
• allocating adequate and sustainable technical and financial resources to support women directly in natural resource management and the control of environmental degradation
• analysing the gender impacts of macro-level policies and institutions, including trade liberalisation and privatisation, in relation to environment and sustainable development.

Source(s):
‘Women and the environment’, Report by the United Nations Environment Programme, 2005 Full document.

Funded by: United Nations Foundation

id21 Research Highlight: 31 January 2006

Further Information:
UNEP, Division of Policy Development and Law
P.O. Box 30552
Nairobi
Kenya

Tel:  + 254 20 7 62 36 80
Fax:  + 254 20 7 62 50 10
Contact the contributor: civil.society@unep.org

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)
355 Lexington Ave., 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10017
USA

Tel: + 1 212 973-0325
Fax: + 1 212 973-0335

Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)

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