Women in REDD+: The missing link

After going through Cancun’s heavy traffic jam (took over 2 hours from my hotel to Cancunmesse – where exhibition and side events are taking place) yesterday morning, I was able to visit a number of exhibition booths and attended one side event on – ‘The missing link to success: women in REDD', organized by WEDO, IUCN, WOCAN and Norway. The occasion was also the formal launch of a global campaign initiative on Women and REDD. This aims to mainstream gender in REDD+ at the global and national levels as well as enhancing women’s capacities.

During this well attended side event, Norwegian chief negotiator noted that women are not passive victims but actors with respect to taking actions on reducing deforestation and degradation, forest conservation and advancing respect for human rights.

“Gender perspective of REDD+ should go beyond mere forest conservation to include issues of livelihoods’, he noted. He added that women are important in forest management in terms of stopping illegal practices and advancing the multiple uses of forests.

IUCN noted that involvement of women means more than having one person at a table. Rather, it includes a more systematic approach where a ‘gender filter’ is in place. There is a need for forest reforms, conservation and poverty reduction programmes to embrace marginalized groups like women. IUCN summed up the key requirements as enabling the participation of woe and girls in REDD+ strategies; arrangements for equitable distribution of benefits and capacity building of communities.

Case studies were also given from Tanzania, Nepal, and Philippines which underscore the need for capacity building and involvement of women in REDD+ taking into account the cultural resistance, capacity needs and the lack of alternatives to fuelwood as a major source of energy and income. In Zanzibar, CARE’s HIMA project for example, women rely heavily on wood cutting as a source of cash income.

One interesting aspect that I picked from this side event is that NGOs can take up to mainstream gender in REDD+ is to have gender differentiation of the impacts of climate change, as well as the possible solutions (adaptation, mitigation). For example the expansion of palm oil for renewable energy might sound a good motive but might be a hindrance for women due to reduced opportunities for firewood and other forest products and services.