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6. RECOMMENDATIONS

The final day of the consultation was devoted to formulating a set of recommendations.

Sustainable biodiversity management involves concurrent attention to the following activities:

The legally binding Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) provides guidelines in all these three areas. Further, CBD recognises “the vital role that women play in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity” and affirms “the need for the full participation of women at all levels of policy making and implementation for biological diversity conservation.”

The participants of this FAO-MSSRF Regional Technical Consultation considered methods of mainstreaming gender considerations in biodiversity management through the case studies and country papers presented and the detailed discussions that followed. Based on these, recommendations for implementation at the global, regional, and national levels were made.

Global Action

FAO

FAO, through its Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, should develop a Gender Code to facilitate the recognition of women's role in the conservation and enhancement of agro-biodiversity. Such a Gender Code may also provide for the incorporation of gender-sensitive provisions in the operational framework for Farmers' Rights as well as for the revitalisation of the traditional contributions of women in the conservation and selection of valuable genetic diversity in home gardens.

FAO's The State of Food and Agriculture Report for the year 2001 should include a special chapter on “Strengthening Gender Roles in the Conservation and Enhancement of Agro-biodiversity.

WTO-TRIPS

The Seattle round of discussions on the Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights should take into account gender roles in bioresources management.

The World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (WIPO)

WIPO is currently engaged in a study relating to the recognition of contributions of indigenous, tribal, and rural communities in the conservation and improvement of biological resources. This study should give explicit consideration to the role of women as holders of traditional knowledge and conservers of genetic resources.

Conference of Parties to CBD (COP)

At one of the forthcoming meetings of the COP, specific attention should be paid to methods of recognising and rewarding the contributions of women, as stipulated in CBD.

It is requested that the FAO Regional Office in Bangkok and MSSRF take up these recommendations with the concerned authorities for implementation.

Regional Co-operation

Asian Network on Gender, Biodiversity and Food Security

A co-operative network linking concerned institutions and individuals in Asia into a working partnership will be very valuable in achieving the goal of internalising the gender dimension in ongoing work relating to biodiversity management. Such a co-operative network can undertake the following tasks in a sustained and systematic manner:

FAO-RAP should initiate steps to bring such a network into existence, and MSSRF may serve as its co-ordinating centre. National nodes will have to be designated and suitable funding agencies will have to be identified to initiate and sustain the network.

Country-specific case studies

FAO-RAP is to be congratulated on its initiative in sponsoring country-specific case studies. This initiative needs to be continued and case studies initiated in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand.

National Action

Every country should develop a national gender code (which includes land ownership rights for women) for implementation under the National Biodiversity Act.

Legislation relating to Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights should be gender sensitive. The Act should provide for the inclusion of representative of women farmers and conservers on the appropriate national regulatory and co-ordinating bodies.

Policy advocacy seminars should be organised, where the results obtained in case studies can be brought to the attention of policy makers.

Government departments dealing with forestry and environment should give adequate representation to women professionals.

The 2001 Census could incorporate the gender dimension while collecting statistics in the fields of food, agriculture, and land rights.

In Participatory Forest Management systems involving local communities, the participation of women and the sharing of non-wood forest products with them should be ensured.

Community Biodiversity Registers must be gender sensitive. The format developed by MSSRF serves as a model for gender-sensitive Community Biodiversity Registers.

The passport data maintained by gene banks should be recast, in order to clearly bring out gender roles in the conservation and collection of different accessions.

MSSRF is requested to undertake mapping gender dimensions of biodiversity management through a survey of published literature.

The provisions of National Biodiversity Acts and the implementation structures established under such Acts, should ensure that the role of women is properly recognised in prior informed consent, access, and benefit sharing.

Countries like Bangladesh and the Philippines have made considerable progress in engendering all development and conservation programmes. There is much that other countries in this region can learn from the experience of Bangladesh and the Philippines in implementing the provisions of national legislation designed to empower women and to remove gender blindness. This will help to alter the present deplorable situation, where the critical role of women in biodiversity management and in food security remains invisible and unrecognised.

Nearly 900 million of the world's poor (i.e., who survive on less than one US dollar a day) live in the Asia-Pacific region. Nearly one in three Asians are poor. A majority of them are women. Poverty has become the primary cause of food insecurity at the levels of individuals and households. The sufficient and equitable use of biodiversity can help in enhancing the income and livelihood security of the poor. This is why the recommendations of this consultation on methods of mainstreaming gender considerations in biodiversity management deserve urgent attention and appropriate action.


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