About gender analysis and forestry
Access to forests, trees and other natural resources, and the quality and quantity of those resources, may have a critical effect on the well-being and survival of people all over the world. In many cultures, access is determined by gender-based differences in knowledge about natural resources and ways of using them, which vary from country to country and from village to village and depend on traditions and environmental, social and economic circumstances. And this access to natural resources is not always equal for men and for women.
Gender equality, defined in terms of an equal distribution of economic power, must be understood as a distribution of influence, power and opportunities based on parity. The task in gender analysis is to analyse and deal effectively with the unspoken, implicit hierarchies of ¿second¿ and ¿first¿ power roles, which often condemn either men or women - but primarily women - to second-class roles. This analysis is a tool to diagnose the differences between women and men regarding their specific activities, conditions, needs, access to and control over resources, and access to development benefits and decision-making. It studies the linkages of these other factors in the larger social, economic, political and environmental context and entails primarily collecting sex-disaggregated data and gender-sensitive information in the population concerned.
An understanding of gender-based differences in a given population, and of the way a particular society assigns gender roles to men and women, is essential for the accurate evaluation of the consequences - and chances for success - of any activities aimed at sustainable forest management, especially because they often deal with changes in access to forests and forest products. For example, by answering the following questions regarding resources or products that a local community extracts - Who collects these resources? How? Why? How are they controlled, managed and used? And by whom? - the effects on men and women can be better understood far enough upstream for policy- and decision-makers to clearly target vulnerable groups for assistance and support, and to design the policies and decisions towards a goal of gender equality that benefits all of the men, women and children of a society.
