The role of women and the obstacles to biodiversity conservation in developed and developing countries

Abstract

Women play several significant roles in biodiversity conservation, be they linked to conservation’s main activities or decision-making. However, there are countless barriers and disparities capable of affecting the performance of their roles. From this perspective, this study aimed to investigate and compare the roles played by women in the conservation and management of biodiversity. Additionally, it sought to evaluate the obstacles and disparities they face in this process, focusing on both developed and developing countries. We carried out a systematic review of the literature, using the PRISMA Protocol to avoid biased data. We reviewed 400 articles. However, only 73 articles were included in this study, as they met the inclusion criteria. We used the Discursive Textual Analysis method to identify the categories of roles and obstacles found in the articles. We have identified 8 categories of roles played by women in biodiversity conservation and 11 obstacles/difficulties faced by them to perform their role. Developed countries did not show conservation’s main activities, only environmental governance categories, biodiversity management, and others (environmentalist movements). Concerning developing countries, ‘management of natural resources’ was the most cited category in the analyzed studies. There were several main activities related to agriculture in developing countries, mainly agroecology, sustainable agriculture, and agrobiodiversity. Developed countries stood out for double shifts, lack of public policies, lack of financing, gender discrimination, cross-sectional factors, and climatic skepticism, as obstacles to biodiversity conservation. We have concluded that there are differences in the roles played by women in developed and developing countries. We understood that the cross-sectional factors, that is, factors that encompass ethnicity, race, age, geographic location, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and/or the condition of a person with a disability, were the most observed obstacle/difficulty in both developing and developed countries.