University of Bristol

Department of Social Policy & Social Planning MSc course in Development Administration & Planning

Name: Jos-Mara Tabern Abad Essay Title: What role do women play as environmental managers in developing countries? Answer with reference to rural areas. Module Title: Resource and Environmental Management Lecturer: Ben Oakley

Spring Term 1995

Environmental problems do not only result from the development process itself but also from the very lack of development1. The scarcely capital-endowed, predominantly agricultural economies of developing countries, depend on the availability and quality of natural resources for the sustained use of the bioproductive systems of agriculture, ranching, forestry and fishery2. Environmental degradation is putting increasing pressure on rural women. The household economy in which rural women actively participate is based almost entirely in biomass. The extent of their dependence on environmental resources is clearly demonstrated through the income they derive from agricultural produce and other small-scale economic enterprise. These monetised activities as well as the nonmonetised ones depend on reliable rural supplies. In this respect changes in environmental conditions are a threat to the economic survival of women3. In the art of the Stone Age, woman's representations and magic is primary, and of nature, as transformers, mediators, maintainers and sustainers of life, gathering roots, berries, and small game4. The feminine qualities of receptivity, of nurturing in silence and secrecy are as essential to creation as their masculine opposites and in no way inferior5. Throughout cultures and civilisations we find myths -like those of Eve, Isis, Gaia, Demeter, Persephone, Sakti, and Kore- which by focusing on fertility, the agricultural cycle, the forests, water streams and other themes, one way or another conclude that the bedrock of women's consciousness is the need to preserve life6 and that the earth is our mother, not belonging to man; but that man belongs to the earth7. In many developing countries, rural women are primarily responsible for household and farming activities as well as the management of local resources. Therefore, women's traditional tasks, experiences, knowledge and concerns about local problems are essential in solving emerging environmental problems such as deforestation, soil erosion and the scarcity of food, fodder, fuel, wood and water8. According to the 1994 Human Development Report, in 1992 about 65% of the total developing countries' population was rural, and 58% of the total workforce were women. Extrapolating these figures, one may conclude that 37.7% of the total developing countries manpower -in both rural and urban environments- are rural women. However, women's participation is constrained in many ways. Institutional and organisational support for education and training for women in modern community activities is far from established. Other factors such as the lack of access to and participation of women in local village councils, limit the efectiveness and efficiency of operations9 devised to avoid environmental degradation. This essay reaffirms recent views that rural women, despite their long, hard work schedules and their lack of formal education or training, can collectively use the traditional knowledge and awareness gained from daily-living experiences in effectively managing their local environment10. Given the breadth of this subject, I will focus on a 2

limited number of specific issues: Firstly, I will review the central elements of gender and development and woman's general role, women's participatory processes and their limitations. I will then focus on woman's patterns of involvement in environmental management in rural areas. Finally I will describe an outline of the institutional framework needed to encourage and support women's sucess in playing such a crucial role. Being the provision of energy for cooking a central task for women to ensure adequate energy supply for their household requirements, I will take forestry related activities as sample leading argumental line. Gender, Development and Environment. In most low-income Third World households women have a triple role. 'Women's work' includes not only reproductive work, the childbearing and rearing responsibilities required to guarantee the maintenance and reproduction of the labour force. It also includes productive work, often as secondary income earners. In rural areas this usually takes the form of agricultural work. Also, women undertake community management work around the provision of items of collective consumption11. Women, in their acceptance of the gender division of labour, see the house as their sphere of dominance and take primary responsibility for the provision of consumption needs12. In their reproductive role, rural women depend on the resources of wood, water and soil for daily survival, and as such are the primary users of the environment13. For women the point of residence includes not only the home but extends into the sorrounding areas; social relationships include not only household members but also neighbours. Mobilization and organisation at the community level is a natural extension of their domestic work14; the interconnection of female ecological, 'organic' and survival values is evident in the nature of activities undertaken by women in tree growing15, for example. Women are motivated to grow trees not only for fuel, fodder, fruit, as windbreaks, for fencing and for shade and construction materials16. Firstly, women are aware of the benefit of tree growing activities, such as soil and water conservation. Secondly, they have the desire to better the quality of the environment for future generations17, thus explicitly assuming the most re-cited definition of sustainable development advanced by WCED (1987:43) as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. Ecology, a study of relations between animals, plants, people and their environment, ethimologically comes from the Greek aikos, a house, and logos, discourse; words such economy, ecodevelopment, even gynecology have the same ethymological roots. Women's 'greening of consciousness' as pronounced by H. Skolimowsky18 has no relation to the fact that today -at least in the developed world- the idea of environmental protection has gained general currency though blocking -for the moment- the ecological thinking, because environmental protection and ecology are confused with each other19. Woman's patterns of involvement 3

First World psychologists says that many of the difficulties that women face today follow from the fact that they are moving into fields of action that were formerly reserved for the male and for which there are no female mythological models. So the woman finds herself in a competitive relationship with the male, and in this may lose the sense of her own nature20. Generally speaking, in the Third World the community politics role, in contrast to community management role, comprises activities undertaken by men at the community level organizing at the formal political level21. Because of their reproductive and community management roles, environmental managment is considered a Practical Gender Need, as one of those that are formulated from the concrete conditions women experience, such as food, shelter, water and firewood needs. Thus Shiva22 describes forestry in the following terms: There are in India, today, two paradigms of forestry -one life-enhancing, the other life-destroying. The former emerges from the forest and the feminine principle; the latter from the factory and the market, so underlining the collision of both concepts23 of forestry, as 'soil, water and pure air', and 'profit, resin and timber'. Concerning wildlife and biodiversity, it is difficult to ascertain wether its preservation does not collide with women's reproductive work; little research has been done: In the populous, poor countrysides of Africa, wild game has always formed a high percentage of the meager protein diet; thus "nama", the Hausa word for animal, also means "meat". In West Africa, the need for animal protein has all but eliminated the wild animals24. Unlike Kenya and Tanzania, where the ambivalent attitude toward wildlife is quite similar but where the economic impetus of tourism is clear, these countries see small reason to protect what is left of their wildlife, far less restore what is now gone25. In short, one is continually being reminded by Nigerians that theirs is the most densely populated nation in Africa and that perhaps, therefore, there is no place for wildlife26. But women's role is not ambiguous in agricultural environmental management: An FAO survey of Sub-saharan Africa has found that some 50 million rural people now have no fuel for cooking and that another 130 million are getting some wood, but at the expense of valuable forest. Women mostly work on subsistence food production while men produce cash crops27. Population pressure associated with deforestation and unwise farming techniques is the major factor leading to degradation of soils28. Many aspects of social organisation are related to water availability29. Water conservation is closely linked with soil conservation and with good crop and animal husbandry30. Even without examining the multiple examples available on women's few but widespread fields of expertise, the above overall examination reveals that women are among the most experienced and motivated rural actors and resource managers31. However, their impact could well be improved. Institutional framework Historically, top-down state intervention alone has not removed any of the persistent causes of gender inequality within society32. Poverty and the distribution of land are the main social factors affecting the productvity and conservation of land33. The traditional 4

view of planning methodology as a neutral and universally applicable set of technical procedures has been citicized34. Strategic Gender Needs are those that are formulated from the analysis of women's subordination to men: Rights to own land or property, or access to credit have an effect on women's capability to materialize their views and priorities in most respects, including the environment. Recent research results indicate that 80 per cent of all households in the developing countries depend on wood as their primary source of energy. If present trends continue, the woodfuel supplies of many hundreds of millions of people will be exhausted long before the oilfields on which the industrialized world depends have run dry35. A balanced pattern of land use and environmental exploitation is important in maintaining the resource base on which rural energy supplies depend. Industries such as those of timber, plywood and food also exert tremendous pressure on the forests and cultivated land. The external demand generated by these products has contributed to environmental degradation within the forest areas36. Bartelmus (84:1994) in his 'framework for sustainable growth and development' proposes public awareness and participation as a major means of local sustainable development. This proactive (anticipatory) policy recognizes the key role of governments. On the other hand a typical view, provided by the Bruntland Report, identifies the critical function of NGOs to ensure sustainable development37. Among the various policy approaches to Third World women, the Empowerment issue38 comes parallel to that of community Empowerment, which has been considered by UNCED as the key to facilitating the participation of local populations in the sustainable development of their communities. In turn, 'disempowerment' of local communities has been flagged as the root cause of environmental decline in developing countries39. It remains to be seen to what extent top-down regional planning can provide an appropriate framework for the active participation of grass-roots organisations in the design and implementation of projects and programmes40. As a consequence, some amount of central governmental authority would have to be delegated to local organisations41. Third World NGOs are not a new phenomenon: they exist in most areas of local and national public interest. Characteristics also include a broadening of their functions from traditional relief and welfare concerns to development-orientated and production support activities, including areas previously regarded as the 'exclusive prerrogative of government'. In adition, they experiment an increase42 in their complexity and sophistication. This relates both to their internal structures as well as to their militancy and mobilization capacity. NGOs have strengthened contacts with other NGOs, establishing linkage systems between them. The proliferation of such networks and institutional structures during the past decade makes it important to identify the underlying reasons why NGOs have assumed such importance, in terms of both numbers and scope. The most important organizational characteristic in NGOs has been their capacity to incorporate voluntarism into an organized structure. This results in a potential 'to mobilize into organized structures of voluntary group action for selfreliance and self-development'. Traditionally, their role has been identified as an alternative entry point for local-level social development. Their comparative advantage 5

over government lies in the ways they relate to beneficiaries, as well as their freedom in organizing themselves43. This also reflects the World Bank's position on the efficiency approach to WID: women are key factors in the forestry sector throughout the developing world. Ensuring their direct involvement in forestry projects, both as beneficiaries and participants, can ensure that projects achieve their immediate purposes and broad socio-economic goals, as well as maximize returns on investment in this sector44. In the rural context, however, the critical role of environmental and agricultural factors and their developmental relationships, including agrarian structures and reforms need to be examined45. Women sometimes face cultural restrictions on work outside the household compound46. There are also problems of ethnic conflict within some community-based groups47. The increasing problems of fuelwood supply lead to conflicts for women who combine their role in productive activities such as farming, fishmongering and market gardening with domestic activities48. However, in Africa for example, the economic and organisational base continues to build its strength through the spontaneous growth and dominance of women's autonomous self-help associations in private spheres49. Where small farmers are concerned, the formation of groups or cooperatives can provide a means of putting limited resources to fuller use50, being also used in several developing countries as viable institutions for community participation51. In a recent study five women groups interviewed identified similar constraints to their tree growing activities: lack of sufficient inputs; infestations; shortage of water, manure, fencing and containers; a continous lack of organisational and management skills; lack of proper training; scarcity of land; time constraints; lack of capital to enhance activities; irregular extension services and non-recognition of their activities by the government. Additionally, it was observed that heterogeinity both within each group and between the groups (with respect to age, education, status, motivation) proved somewhat problematic52. In planning, designing and programming suitable projects and in ensuring that participants are the beneficiaries, international agencies, government departments and the NGOs concerned have begun to consider viable forms of co-operation, leadership and incentives among women. Some of them include indigenous forms of co-operation such as kinship, marital or age groups53. Conclusion In spite of some forty years of planned development, women's status in India is far from satisfactory54. For instance, gender bias in the distribution of work, income and wealth, especially in rural subsistence communities, has been blamed for depriving women of the results of economic growth and making them suffer the brunt of pressures on forests and croplands55. Women claim that most of the successful programmes using community participation as a principal method of operation have been run by non-governmental organisations. Several reasons are advanced: NGOs are unencumbered by bureaucratic machinery, their projects are usually on a smaller scale, 6

making community participation easier to achieve; because of their charitable nature they are more likely to employ highly motivated people unconcerned about career prospects; and they find it easier to be innovative and initiate experimental projects that demonstrate a potential usually ignored by bureaucrats56. For those people in less developed countries, the elimination of poverty is a prerequisite for any action on global environmental concerns57. Ecodevelopment is considered a practical way of directly improving conditions of poverty in situ and in sympathy with custom, tradition and environment58. Exhortations to the need to develop a 'satisfactory social ecosystem' (one of the features of ecodevelopment) or of the vital role of social groups, notably women, in environmental management and development are not enough59. According to Ghana's 1984 national population census, women outnumbered men in food production and animal husbandry60. As more and more men went into cash crop production, women, who were discouraged from participating in the agricultural export economy, were narrowly restricted to the production of subsistence crops for feeding the family61. Women have been severely affected by dominantly male-orientated development strategies. Concepts such as local as opposed to externally-imposed development are as important an element as that of sustainable use of resources, or self-reliance. Although some separate membership organisations for women provide greater autonomy of expression and opportunities for women to develop skills, leadership and self-confidence, they often limit their political representation in decision-making bodies at the district level. Integrated organisations which equally represent men and women may be an ideal approach for creating sustainable rural development62. Community participation in environmental issues needs to be viewed as the articulation and development of the agendas of local people based on their knowledge of the local environment and economy63. Nevertheless, scarce human resources need to be recognized and their services rewarded, even if conventional accounts and economics still consider them as free gifts. The case in point is women's involvement in natural resource management64. Many articles maintain that favourable conditions exist in farming communities for environmental actions and development approaches based on sustainable development, since these areas have suffered from the negative effects of degradation65. Many development agents have noticed that women are the wood collectors so it is important to obtain their views when a tree project is planned66. The value of fodder trees is immense where livestock is kept, particularly as they are likely also to provide fuel and to enrich the soil67. Beekeeping has long been practised in the tropics. It provides farmers with honey, beeswax and pollination68. The organisation of groups of people around these resources is of paramount importance. But the formation of new groups is time-consuming. Hence some agencies 7

are inclined to work with existing groups. However, in many cases, existing groups are likely to be dominated by elites; they also tend to be characterized by the predominance of men over women, and by the landed over the landless69. For these reasons, NGOs frequently find it desirable to identify or encourage the establishment of new groups, often on a 'special interest' basis within existing communities. This is a particularly important device for enhancing women's development prospects70. This essay has tried to argue that degradation does not arise from the present actions of a multitude of individual producers but is rooted in the economic history of the social system and the nature of its integration into the world market. These factors influence the way in which people interact with the environment. Environmental degradation is a long-term process whose impact falls more heavily on future generations, a fact which is naturally felt by women. The study of rural environmental consciousness, in the context of the dynamics of interactions between the human and natural worlds and the logic of past actions and their unforeseen consequences, can make a valuable contribution to environmental management71.

ENDNOTES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

Bartelmus, P. (1994), p.6 Ibid, p.23 Pratt, B (1990), p.15 Campbell, J. (1980), p.75 Ibid, p.11 Moser, C. (1993), p.36 Luke, H. (1980), p.11 Momsen, J. (1993), p.30 Ibid, p.42 Ibid, p.31 Moser, C., p.28 Ibid, p.34 Ibid, p.53 Ibid, p.35 Momsen, J. p.31 Ibid, p.39 Ibid, p.41 Ghai, D. (1994) p.737 Bahro, R. (1994), p.11 Campbell, J. p.74 Moser, C. p.34 Ibid, p.54 Ibid, p.53 8

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69.

Matthiessen, P. (1992), p.116 Ibid, p.34 Ibid p.35 Moser, C. p.33 Pratt, B. p.244 Ibid, p.250 Ibid, p.251 Momsen, J. p.44 Moser, C. p.39 Pratt, B. p.241 Moser, C. p.8 Momsen, J. p.15 Ibid, p.17 Moser, C. p.192 Ibid, p.56 Bartelmus, P. p.124 Ibid, p.125 Ibid, p.124 Moser, C. p.193 Ibid, p.194 Ibid, p.152 Momsen, J. p.13 Farrington, J. (1993) p.86 Ibid, p.108 Momsen, J. p.21 Ibid, p.32 Pratt, B. p.242 Momsen, J. p.33 Ibid, p.42 Ibid, p.32 Ibid, p.120 Bartelmus, P. p.67 Momsen, J. p.231 Bartelmus, P. p.22 Ibid, p. xv Ibid, p.121 Momsen, p.19 Ibid, p.18 Ibid, p.45 Matthiessen, p.65 Bartelmus, p.121 Matthiessen, p.41 Pratt, B. p.265 Ibid, p.267 Ibid, p.297 Farrington, J. p.108 9

70. Ibid, p.109 71. Ghai p.43 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Campbell, J. (1980) The Great Goddess. Parabola Volume V, No.4. New York, N.Y.: Society for the Study of Mith and Tradition. 2. Luke, H. (1980) The perennial feminine. Parabola Volume V, No.4. New York, N.Y.: Society for the Study of Mith and Tradition. 3. New Webster's Dictionary (1992). New York, N.Y.: Ottenheimer Publishers. 4. Bahro, R. (1994) Avoiding social & ecological disaster. Bath: Gateways Books. 5. Moser, C. (1993) Gender Planning and Development. London: Routledge. 6. Pratt, B. (1990) The Field Director's Handbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 7. Momsen, J. (1993) Different places, different voices. London: Routledge. 8. Bartelmus, P. (1994) Environment, growth and development. London: Routledge. 9. Farrington, J. (1993) Reluctant partners? London: Routledge. 10. Marien, R. Environmental problems and sustainable futures. Futures. Vol 24, n 8. October 1992. 11. Ghai, D. (1994). Ecological Knowledge and the Regional Economy: Environmental Management in the Asesewa District of Ghana. 12. Matthiessen, P. (1992) African Silences. New York: Vintage Books.

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