Increasing women's participation in community-based conservation: key to success?

Abstract

Ensuring that both men and women benefit equitably from conservation and development programs is likely to increase the long-term success of both conservation and development goals. However, despite numerous international agreements and national policies highlighting the important relationship between gender , environment and sustainable development, implementation is often weak and gender is often neglected or inadequately addressed in conservation initiatives (Westerman and Benbow 201 4). Since women play critical roles in natural resource use, information transfer, and societal reinforcement of resource use practices (Agarwal 2009), there is a need to ensure that they are as well integrated into community-based conservation projects as men at all levels, from micro-development projects to management and decision-making structures. Cultural practices and traditional gender roles may make this challenging; however, such an approach could substantially improve the outcomes of conservation and development actions. In Madagascar, there is currently an urgent need and also an opportunity to mainstream the integration of gender in conservation planning and implementation. Madagascar holds some of the most unique and biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, but is currently facing an environmental crisis that threatens both its biological wealth and the human livelihoods that depend on it. Mada-gascar's forests are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world, and support about 1 4.5 million people (ca. 65% of the population) who rely on forest resources for their subsistence (Chao 201 2). Efforts to stem this crisis have led to a rise in community based conservation initiatives in Madagascar including the Government's recent earmarking of 94 new protected areas tota-ling more than 6 million hectares and about 1 0% of the remaining forest. These new protected areas will each be tied to a community based conservation effort run through a local or foreign NGO. While this is a giant leap in addressing Madagascar's environmental crisis, there will be significant challenges in implementing and effectively addressing the coupled environmental and human dimensions. Given the high dependence of the nation's people on forest resources (e.g., for food and construction), the successful integration of both men and women into these initiatives will be critical for their success. The importance of a gender-responsive strategy to conservation is also addressed in decisions and recommendations set forth by the Convention for Biological Diversity (UNEP 201 0, 201 4), for which Madagascar is a party. As such, there has been a recent increase in gender considerations in conservation initiatives throughout the …