Gender and forestry. Women s contributions, needs and preferences often underappreciated and overlooked in policy

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1 Gender at CIFOR

2 Gender and forestry Forests are not gender neutral: Gendered division of labor: women collect fuel wood and NTFPs, play important roles in managing forests, and are crucial contributors to household food security Women often disadvantaged in terms of access to and control over resources; women s participation in decisionmaking limited Women s contributions, needs and preferences often underappreciated and overlooked in policy Policies, processes and interventions might have gender-differentiated impacts. Gender equality is a crucial component in achieving sustainable development. Increased demand for and attention to gendersensitive policies and interventions

3 Gender at CIFOR High institutional priority: Gender as a cross-cutting theme FTA Gender Strategy: Increase the volume of gender-specific research within all flagships Integrate gender into all research FTA Flagships 1. Smallholder production systems and markets (productivity, sustainability, markets, incomes and policies & institutions) 2. Management and conservation of forest and trees 3. Landscape management of forested areas for ES, biodiversity and conservation 4. Climate change adaptation and migration 5. Impacts of trade and investment on forests and people; tenure

4 Gender-equitable rights and access to forest and tree resources and benefits: A mixed methods approach in Uganda and Nicaragua (Mwangi, E. and Larson, A.) GENDER, TENURE AND COMMUNITY FORESTS Ongoing since 5 years Objectives: Duration 1) understanding women s participation Countries studied in Uganda, Nicaragua forest decision-making; 2) facilitating community-level Objective Affecting To improve women s participation through ACM Funding partner Austrian Development Agency (ADA) Policy and tenure rights to forests through their increased participation in forest user groups with respect to both decision making and livelihood benefits. 6 villages in Uganda, 9 Peoples in Nicaragua Partners in Uganda In partnerships Makerere with University, School of Forestry, local universities, Environment and NGOs, forestry agencies Geographical Studies, Uganda Association of Uganda Professional Women in Agriculture and the Environment Adaptive Collaborative Management and gender relations Befor e: After : 16% Gender in chairperson roles: Gender in leadership roles Gr oups tr ai ned i n ACM exper i enced IMPROVED IMPROVED IMPROVED confidence interest willingness to share ideas active contribution assertiveness ability to seek out external assistance planting their preferred tree species allocation of for est land under collaborative forest management arrangements with the National Forestry Authority for tree planting coordination with forestry agencies, research organizations and NGOs ability to access resources, from training to seedlings i 84% These benefits reflected both women s and men s preferences, suggesting that forest governance is most ef ective with gender balance. acceptance of women s participation and leader ship Gender in leadership roles 50% 50% Gender in chairperson roles: What we are doing is very innovative, because we are using an approach that aims to transform gender relations and we are already seeing just how powerful the effects can be. Esther Mwangi, CIFOR Senior Scientist Benefits of sustained engagement

5 Gender and REDD+ (Larson et al) Data from 69 villages in 18 REDD+ sites in Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, Tanzania and Vietnam Part of CIFOR s Global Comparative Study on REDD+ Focus on women s participation in decision-making, use and management of forests, and knowledge of REDD+. Results: While representation was low, many women felt that they were sufficiently represented No relationship between women s participation in decision-making and their use of forests Gendered differences in knowledge of REDD+, women s involvement limited and nominal Merely pushing for women s increased participation in REDD+ projects is not enough. Increased attention to how men and women differ in regards to key REDD-processes in their respective sites is crucial.

6 Gender and Local Environmental Governance (Coleman, E. and Mwangi, E.) Examines relation between women s control of forest governance translates into environmental policy outcomes Data from 170 forests, from 15 different countries When women have a slight majority in local forest governance, these forest have significantly more above ground biomass, and more stringent institutions Women s control of local forest institutions can thus have a significant, positive effect on forest outcomes

7 Challenging perceptions about men, women LA dummy and forest product *** ( 3.332) use: a global comparative (6.005) study (Sunderland et al 2014) assumptions ( 0.324) (0.849) ( 0.644) ( 1.937) Village market integration b *** *** ( 4.282) ( ) ( 4.303) ( 1.183) Village averageincome 8.37e e *** (1.062) ( 1.106) (1.387) ( 5.249) Africa dummy *** Observations 5, ,796 3,132 Chi Product of the CIFOR-led Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) Draws on socioeconomic and environmental data from 8000 households in 24 countries across Africa, Asia and South America. Examines commonly held perceptions of gender and forest use against empirical data Robust z-statistics in parentheses. a For householdswith amalehead of household who wasmarried, theageof thespousewasused (or oldest spousein thecaseof polygamoushousehold). b Villageaverageproportion of income earned in cash out of total income. *** p < ** p < * p < 0.1. Table 4. Commonly held perceptions of gender and forest use versus findings from the PEN data Issue Perception PEN findings Overall contribution Specialization in collection Diversification in products Subsistence vs. cash Forest user groups (FUG) Common property Harvesting forest products mainly undertaken by women Women collect mainly firewood, plants for food and medicine; men mainly collect construction materials and hunt Women collect a higher diversity of forest products Women collect mainly for subsistence use, men for sale Women are underrepresented in FUGs Women collect a greater share of products from land under common property tenure regimes than men For income from unprocessed forest products, the conventional wisdom only holdsin Africa. For processed forest products, it doesnot hold anywhere; i.e., men are the main contributors in all three regions This holds in Asia and Africa, but not in Latin America. Also, men make substantial contributions to firewood collection in Asia, and to food collection inall regions In terms of aggregated product categories, men collect a higher diversity than women Both women and men collect predominantly for subsistence use, but men s sale share is generally higher than women s (except for unprocessed products in Africa) Women srepresentation in FUGsiswell below that of men, and below their input share of forest collections. But forest user groups actually only existed in25% of our study villages This claims holds for Latin America and Asia, but not for Africa. However, the vast majority of products for both genders is collected under state property tenure regime women are the main collectors of forest products seems to overwhelmingly so in Latin America. In Asia, thecontribution

8 Gender and largescale land acquisitions (Li, T. M.) Study on the social impacts of oil palm on West Kalimantan, Indonesia Impacts highly differentiated: gender, ethnicity and assets matter Farmers with enough land, government support and mixed farming system benefit (both men and women) Landless local women hit hardest Stronger regulations to protect workers are needed Increased support to independent smallholders

9 Some ongoing work: Gender and NTFP value chains (Ethiopia, Zambia and DRC) Women, tenure and participation (India) Gender and large-scale land acquisitions (East Africa) Gender, forest governance and decision-making (global) Systematic review on gender, tenure and food security (global) Gender and climate change adaptation (Congo basin) Gender and REDD+ (Burkina Faso) Gender and migration (Nepal)

10 What to consider Safeguard rights of marginalized communities Involve marginalized groups in stakeholder consultations and in implementation of laws Ensure incentives for sustainable forest use and management are gender responsive Ensure benefits from various arrangements reach all community members equally Provide for marginalized groups participation in forest management and decision-making Continued investment in research, sex-disaggregated data for baseline and M&E BECAUSE: Good forest governance is gender-responsive!

11 Influencing policy CIFOR assisted the Indonesian Ministry of Women and Child Protection in incorporating gender to REDD+ processes. FAO requested CIFOR for input in gender, forest and food security policy brief CIFOR contributed to IUCN s manual on gender and climate change CIFOR contributed to UNEP s Global Gender and Environment Outlook

12 For more info and publications, check out: www1.cifor.org/gender/home.html Thank you!