Review


Conservation and natural resource management: where are all the women?


ROB Y N JAMES,BRIDGET GI BBS,LAU R A WHITF O R D CRA IG L EI SHER,RUT H KONI A and NAT H A L I E BUTT


Abstract There is evidence from the development and hu- manitarian sectors that purposeful engagement of women can increase the impact of development. We conducted a literature review to examine whether this is also evident in conservation and natural resource management. The fol- lowing themes emerged from our review: existing societal and cultural norms affect and generally limit how women can engage in conservation and natural resource manage- ment; women interact differently with the environment than men, so if they are excluded, their knowledge and per- spectives on particular resources may not be considered in conservation actions; and there is often a lack of resources or dedicated effort by conservation or natural resource man- agement programmes to understand and address the bar- riers that prevent women’s engagement. Although there was evidence of a positive relationship between the engage- ment of women and environmental outcomes, some studies showed that positive conservation outcomes do not neces- sarily benefit women, and when women are not considered, conservation activities can perpetuate existing inequities. We conclude that although the importance of integrating gender into conservation is acknowledged in the literature, there is a need to examine how women can be meaningful- ly engaged in conservation. This must go beyond treating women as a homogenous group, to consider intersection- ality including race, ethnicity, age, religion, poverty and disability. In addition, conservation and natural resource


ROBYN JAMES* (Corresponding author, BRIDGET GIBBS ( orcid.org/0000-0001-7301-5703)


School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland 4067, Australia. E-mail rjames@tnc.org


orcid.org/0000-0002-6296-0483) School of Geography


Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia


LAURAWHITFORD ( orcid.org/0000-0003-0866-0866) The Nature Conservancy, Melbourne, Australia


CRAIG LEISHER ( orcid.org/0000-0002-2371-2241) The Nature Conservancy, Nairobi, Kenya


RUTH KONIA ( orcid.org/0000-0001-9422-634X) The Nature Conservancy, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea


NATHALIE BUTT ( orcid.org/0000-0003-1517-6191) Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia


*Also at: The Nature Conservancy, Asia Pacific Resource Centre, Brisbane, Australia


Received 24 February 2020. Revision requested 29 July 2020. Accepted 2 December 2020. First published online 5 March 2021.


management institutions need to address the inclusion of women in their own staff and programmes.


Keywords Conservation, environment, equity, gender, gov- ernance, leadership, natural resource management, women


Supplementary material for this article is available at doi.org/10.1017/S0030605320001349


Introduction


and roles attributed to women and men. Perceptions of and views on gender vary between societies and can change over time (Zweifel, 1997; Griffin, 2017). Although gender inequality affects everyone, it can be particularly damaging for women and girls (UNWOMEN, 2017). The development sector has long been systematically addressing gender, aiming to engage and empower women in the context of humanitarian and development interventions. There is evi- dence of benefits when women are intentionally considered in both policy and activities (Duffo, 2012; Taukobong et al., 2016). Many development organizations have developed gender policies that have progressed from simply including women and increasing their participation to a more trans- formative approach. This involves addressing deeply en- trenched patriarchal systems, including cultural and trad- itional norms that underpin and exacerbate gender-based discrimination, exploitation and violence, and making this work an integral component of programmes and projects (e.g. World Vision, 2017; Save the Children, 2019). Here, we focus on how conservation can better consider


G


women. Although large conservation organizations are de- veloping and refining gender policies and guidance (e.g. IUCN, 2018; The Nature Conservancy, 2018; Conservation International, 2019; WWF, 2011), the environment sector overall, including both conservation and natural resource management, has been slow to address gender inequity. Conservation is defined here as the protection of wild flora and fauna and their natural habitats, and natural re- source management refers to the sustainable utilization of major natural resources such as land, water, forests and fisheries (Muralikrishna & Manickam, 2017). There is some


This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oryx, 2021, 55(6), 860–867 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605320001349


ender refers to socially constructed characteristics of femininity and masculinity, including cultural norms


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