Advancing landscape restoration by incorporating women and men into the process and by improving the equitable sharing of benefits from restoration
We have observed at the global level in the last few years an increased attention to gender, the importance of its dynamics and the consequences of inequalities between men and women on development and natural resources management.
Women often are the ones to select the crops, produce most of the food crops, replant lost mangroves for example and hold traditional knowledge. However, even though women around the world play a large role in managing natural resources for their communities and families, their needs and expertise are often not taken into consideration, and they very often have almost no right to land and no decision making power.
Due to landscape degradation, gender roles in land use and management, including agriculture and agroforestry, are changing. For example, following crop or livestock losses due to drought, male out-migration from rural areas in search of jobs is increasingly changing the role and workload of women farmers, leading to an increasing trend of feminization of agriculture in many countries, id est. an increased proportion of women engaging in this sector.
Notwithstanding the context-specific differences, knowledge about the changing gender roles, decision-making and land use preferences can be fundamental to inform future investments in land and advance landscape restoration.
How to adapt to these new responsibilities and take them into consideration in landscape planning? How to provide women with the skills and financial resources required to adopt sustainable land use approaches?
The plenary on Gender and Rights will provide positive examples of gender-responsive approaches in different countries of Africa that could be replicated in the rest of the continent and globally.