GENDER: FORESTS.

Gender dimensions of forest management

Rural women and men often have disparate knowledge of forest resources and different roles in tree and forest management. Women practise traditional agro-forestry production systems, such as home gardening, and harvest and sell wood and tree products as part of small-scale enterprises. They are mainly responsible for collection of fuel wood for the household, and of wild plants used as food and medicines.

Men are involved more in high-value activities such as cutting and hauling timber. But gender roles vary – in parts of Nepal, men weave bamboo baskets, while in Lao PDR, women are more active in the craft. Women are the sole collectors of fuel wood in Bhutan, but men help out in Sri Lanka.

Research suggests that trees and forests are more important to rural women’s livelihoods than to those of men. In Madagascar poor women in one community earned 37% of their income from forest products, compared to 22% earned by men. In Andhra Pradesh, 77% of women’s income in some areas was derived from forests.

In many countries, forest land is owned by the state, while local men have rights to trees and women to tree products such as fruit. On Pacific islands, women harvest breadfruit for food, but breadfruit trees are controlled by men, who use its timber to make furniture. For both men and women, access to forest resources is becoming complex, as rights based in negotiable customary law give way, increasingly, to government action to protect threatened forest habitats by restricting human encroachment.

Restrictions on access affect men and women in different ways. Forests can be crucial to farming women’s survival strategies. In sub-Saharan Africa, responsibility for caring for household members afflicted by HIV/AIDS falls mainly on women, leaving less time for agricultural production. As a result, they are becoming more reliant on forest foods and income from fuel wood. During conflicts and natural disasters, displaced rural people also become more reliant on forest products and services.

Given their responsibility for meeting household food and fuel needs, depletion of forest resources increases burdens on women especially. A study in Malawi found deforestation was forcing elderly women to walk more than 10 km a day to collect fuel wood. Women spend on average 800 hours a year in Zambia and 300 hours a year in Tanzania on the same task. In East Africa, fuel wood scarcity has led to a reduction in the number of meals cooked in poor households.