From Rights to Resources—How Gender-responsive strategies can enhance conservation outcomes

Advancing gender equality and promoting women’s and girls’ rights, as well as the rights of all communities and populations who are, persistently, among the more marginalized and disenfranchised, is an essential component... [ view full abstract ]

Advancing gender equality and promoting women’s and girls’ rights, as well as the rights of all communities and populations who are, persistently, among the more marginalized and disenfranchised, is an essential component of the sustainable use, management and conservation of natural resources as well as for supporting local economies and livelihoods. The objective of this session is to bring together IUCN experts, partners, practitioners and community members to share experiences and strategies for promoting women’s empowerment and gender-responsive solutions to advance and enhance conservation and sustainable development on the ground.

A panel of experts will discuss examples of projects and case studies of successful gender-responsive approaches in conservation projects from around the world, and conference attendees will be invited to participate and share perspectives and experiences. This session aims to highlight key progress made in this field, sharing lessons learned and remaining challenges of relevance to communities, policy-makers, researchers and a range of organizations.

The session will start with a presentation establishing the linkages and evidence base for gender integration in conservation, followed by a facilitated group discussion amongst experts. Each speaker will have a couple of minutes to discuss their case study, after which there will be time for a group discussion with the audience, before we will wrap up and close the session.

Presentations will include the following topics:

• IUCN supports government members and their stakeholders to turn gender and environment commitments into action, including through a cross-sectoral, participatory methodology to develop and implement ccGAPs—national or subnational Climate Change Gender Action Plans. IUCN will discuss varied ccGAP experiences from around the world, especially focusing on a recent process supporting the Comca’ac Indigenous People of Sonora, Mexico, to develop the first ccGAP in a protected area.
• The Mangrove for the Future (MFF) Resilience framework works with local communities to identify and implement sustainable coastal resource management interventions that contribute to the advancement of gender equality. Case studies and results based on a Regional Gender study from 12 countries in South and South East Asia will be presented to illustrate research findings.
• Conservation International’s gender program focuses, in large part, on advancing gender-integrated conservation internally - within CI-led projects and programs at the community level. CI will share several real world examples of how field-based conservation practitioners have identified and addressed gender within a variety of conservation settings, ranging from the Philippines, Timor Leste, Cambodia and Peru.