Women and the environment

By Selena Randall

On Saturday, the world celebrated International Women’s Day, a day when Women’s essential contributions to our well-being were celebrated.

In recognition of that celebration, this week’s article is focused on the role women play in sustainable development.

In many communities, women are the homemakers. The United Nations Environment Program has acknowledged the unique role women play, and the knowledge and resources they bring to a community. They also recognized that gender equality and equity are a pre-condition for environmental conservation, sustainable development and human security. Highly effective agents of change, around the world women are making good things happen.

For example, in Kenya, the Green Belt Movement mobilized women to plant indigenous trees. Since 1977, 6000 village nurseries have been established and about 20 million trees have been planted by 50,000 women members. These trees help prevent desertification, restore soil health and protect water catchment areas. The Movement has also supported a focus on the production of native foods to feed local communities in place of ecologically demanding export crops.

In Nunavik, the Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association formed to ‘reclaim what has been lost’. It’s objective, ‘to develop an approach to sustainable development leading to an exemplary project integrating energy, mining, forestry, recreation, tourism, transportation, and wildlife development, and promoting the growth of local communities in a way consistent with their culture and identity’. Women taking control in their local community and using Traditional Knowledge and cultural ways to maintain a sustainable local environment.

In rural Romania, polluted wells were causing long-term and short-term health problems. Women generally led the water management tasks in households: collecting water, doing laundry, watering gardens and livestock. An active women’s group pushed for change in the Garla Mare, and equal numbers of men and women were appointed to steer a project to address the problem. Women brought their insight of practical water management issues to deliver effective clean drinking water and better hygiene in their community improving health. Their involvement ensured that the knowledge of the link between health and the environment was better understood among villagers and especially children.

International environmental treaties have recognized women as stewards of the natural world, but across the world little has been done to bring the wisdom women have gained in their local environment to the international environmental negotiations. Most of the representatives from most of the states on the world stage are men.

This has happened gradually, affected by women’s position in society where they generally work longer days, combine household and child-rearing tasks, as well as collect fuel and water, as well as generating income.

Women and men consume differently. Women generally address the needs of the family before their own, whereas men are more likely to spend for personal consumption. With more responsibility for managing the household, women are more likely to engage in environmental protection activities such as recycling, reuse and environmentally conscious shopping.

I can hear your ‘but men make contributions to environmental sustainability too’ – yes absolutely they do, and I hear your ‘don’t add the extra burden of environmental regulation on women’s shoulders on top of everything else’. No, I’m calling for combined efforts that bring together the different skills men and women have, which are likely to lead to better, happier, and more peaceful societies.