Gender And Natural Resource Management

This book is about the gender dimensions of natural resource exploitation and management, with a focus on Asia. It explores the uneasy negotiations between theory, policy and practice that are often evident within the realm of gender, environment and natural resource management, especially where gender is understood as a political, negotiated and contested element of social relationships. It offers a critical feminist perspective on gender relations and natural resource management in the context of contemporary policy concerns: decentralized governance, the elimination of poverty and themainstreaming of gender. Through a combination of strong conceptual argument and empirical material from a variety of political economic and ecological contexts (including Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam), the book examines gender-environment linkages within shifting configurations of resource access and control. The book will serve as a core resource for students of gender studies and natural resource management, and as supplementary reading for a wide range of disciplines including geography, environmental studies, sociology and development. It also provides a stimulating collection of ideas for professionals looking to incorporate gender issues within their practice in sustainable development. Published with IDRC.

Documents and reflects on the steps that researchers are taking to implement social and gender analysis, including questions of class, caste, and ethnicity, into their everyday work. Combines both learning experiences and scientific results, representing academic and nonacademic sectors, a variety of research organizations, and a number of natural resource management questions, including biodiversity conservation, crop and livestock improvement, and sustainable grassland development. The learning studies, from China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, and Viet Nam, illustrate challenges, opportunities, successes, and disappointments, and highlight the different methods used and adapted in the diverse contexts of South and Southeast Asia. Concludes with a comparative analysis of the learning studies, which highlights common issues and challenges.

The overview is intended to deepen the understanding of women's roles in environmental and natural resource management. It examines the conceptual and practical connections between gender and the environment, presents an overview of women and natural resource management issues in the Commonwealth, and presents relevant recommendations on women and environmental issues emanating from Commonwealth and international sources.

Even in a realm that would seem to be as far removed from issues of gender as natural resource management, gender bias is pernicious and persistent, especially in India. "Genderscapes" looks at the reasons for this bias from a number of angles, including the socialization of attitudes, the shaping of community ideologies, and the construction of disciplines and research methodologies. Sumi Krishna puts forward the novel concept of genderscapes to reflect the totality of women s life worlds, and she builds her use of the concept on a group of rich case studies, including the caring practices of forest-dwellers, women s knowledge of biodiversity, and their widespread responsibility for farming and food production. Women s economic needs cannot be separated from their sociopolitical interests, Krishna showsand only by looking at them as a whole can we solve the problem of discrimination."

The aim of this book is to highlight the role that gender research can play in understanding natural resource management and rural development issues in the Middle East and North Africa region and how hands-on training and mentoring can be used as a capacity enhancement approach. It presents findings of four research teams, working in three countries, Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco. The approach was to build the capacity of national teams through hands-on field research, mentoring and technical support, which is different from traditional training. The chapters present the results of the case studies used as learning platforms for the teams and reflections on this approach. The case studies demonstrate the capacity and skills that the teams have acquired. These teams were multi-disciplinary and included social scientists as well as specialists in water management, livestock production and rangelands and agronomy. The book provides grounded empirical examples for MENA academics, practitioners and development students concerned about ensuring gender-balanced rural development.