Environment and Sustainable Development

Chapter 9

Gender and Environmental Management

Lucy W. Maina, George E. Owina and Samuel C. J. Otar

9.1 Introduction

eterms gender and development converge in various ways among them

}l the consideration of varied roles that both sexes can play in development,
the gendered distribution of benefits accruing from development together
with how these benefits (and costs) affect men and women. Environmental
sustainability is equally a gender issue because both men and women are
beneficiaries and conservers of the environment. Though programmes targeting
the proper use of the environment have in many cases ignored the value of
integrating genders identities, the rationale 'for the inclusion of both men and
women is not an issue in contention. The essence of being male or female within
society has several dictates. On one level, it represents different social and cultural
experience and secondly, it indicates particular access and control over both
natural and social resources.

The gender approach to development has emerged within the last four decades.
Before that, past approaches to development gave no attention to gender as a
factor. Consequently, the roles of men and women in development were not
carefully assessed while development was perceived as something that happened
to a nation rather than a process requiring conscious integration of various actors
and mobilization of social inputs. More importantly is the fact that women's role
in development was practically ignored. Brett April, in Wallace, (1991)documents
that in the 1950s and 60s, women's interests in development were subsumed
under the concerns of human rights and women were viewed as objects to protect
rather than consult. Through the 1970s,women's key positions in the development
process became more apparent especially in the realm of population and food. In
this paradigm, women emerged as useful resources to integrate into the
development process. Since the 1980s, women have been progressively viewed
not just as relevant players, but also as key agents and beneficiaries in all sectors
and at all levels of the development process. These changes have occurred with
the growth of a better understanding of gender roles.

Similarly, the perception of the relationship between gender and the environment
has also evolved. Traditionally, women have been portrayed paradoxically as
one with nature, close to nature and at conflict with nature. These views have

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had both negative and positive implications. In many cases, women's socially
constructed roles have brought them in direct conflict with the environment and
earned them blame for improper use of the same. According to Sontheinier (1991),
persistent images of women carrying heavy loads on their heads, cultivating on
sloppy terrain, harvesting various products and trading on forest products have
served to reinforce already existing gender inequalities and stereotypes that do
not favour women and their inclusion in environmental management programmes.

Thus, the relationship between gender, environment and sustainable development

can be said to be one ridden with dichotomous dimensions and complexities.
These dimensions centre on among others the fact that men and women have
divergent roles in society, which dictate their patterns of the use of the
environment; women and men's control over resources especially in Africa varies
with women being constrained in different ways so as to emerge as an ecologically
marginalized group; women and men's participation in development and
environmental management is not equally acknowledged; women as opposed to
men are disadvantaged in the provision of ecological management training; and
lastly, environmental policies often tend to subsume women and men under one
group and assume similar effects on them, which is not really the case. As such,
opportunities for the formulation of sound environmental and development
policies are often lost, which translates into continued women marginalisation
and feminisation of poverty.

9.2 Defining and Conceptualising Gender

The definition of gender has been the basis of controversy between different schools
of thought: the sociological particularly the feminist development perspective on.
one hand and the biological theory on the other hand. According to the former,
gender describes the socially constructed attitudes, roles and activities that relate
to being male or female in a society. According to IUCN (2004), gender also implies
attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the socio-
cultural relationships between women and men. All societies create and define
gender roles. They also reinforce behaviour and actions that are deemed consistent
with the definitions allocated to each gender. Controversy surrounds the question
of whether gender roles are really socially constructed or biologically inevitable.
However, gender prescriptions are mainly learnt through the process of
socialization and through the cultural milieu of the society concerned. Hence,
children learn their gender as they learn to behave in ways appropriate to it in
order to perceive and be perceived by others as either masculine or feminine.
Gender prescriptions are especially evident in the division of labour in societies.
Essentially, the feminist theory views gender from a perspective that has nothing
to do with science or biology.

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The biological theory on the other hand views gender as the relationship between
biological sexes and that a gendered behaviour is one that differs by sex. For
instance, men differ from women in physical strength because of having different
hormonal dynamics (Udry, 1994). The paradox on this basis is why human males
do less physically demanding work in comparison to their female counterparts.
In essence nothing is paradoxical because the "patterns of musculature" is
evidently the basis of "pecking order" as in the case of chickens. But unlike in the
case of chickens, the power assertion by human males has been "coated" in the
divine ordination and other cultural traditions in order to see this behaviour
manifesting as "natural" (Otor, 2001). Nevertheless, this chapter conceptualises
gender from the sociological theoretical point of view and with special focus on
sustainable environmental management.

In the -conceptualisation of gender and its import, various scholars have

dichotomised the sexes by building meanings into the respective differential
characteristic of each gender and extending these to the arena of roles, capabilities
and domains of interest. A recurrent assertion is the association of women with
nature and men with culture. Explained, these notions imply that women are
passive entities having a special harmony with the natural world and the earth
by extension while men are rational beings engaged in the field of creativity and
science (Hekman, 1990). Further, it is claimed that women's closeness to nature
is intricately tied to their roles of reproduction and nurturing. These notions are
further interpreted to mean that women can only excel in roles aligned to
nurturing and sustaining. On the contrary, men are depicted as rational, scientific
and affable with the ability to go beyond the immediate loci of nature as it were,
to the manipulation and re-ordering of the same by their superior intellect.

The sexes have also been dichotomised on the basis of their areas of operation,
dominance and relevance. Women have been depicted as private beings, while
men are perceived as public. The spatial division between the public world of
men and the private world of women literary means that for women, their most
relevant sphere is the domestic arena and that the neighbourhood and community
(where women often find expression) are both extensions of the domestic. For
men, it is the public world of politics that utilizes their capabilities more efficiently.

These two traditional views of the sexes have been subjects of wide and often
confusing debate beyond the focus of this paper. Suffice it to say that the
conceptions of women as natural, private and domestic beings have in part
informed the prevailing notions about their harmony (and disharmony) with the
environment and their perceived roles in its exploitation and conservation. For
instance, according to Moser (1993), women are depicted as the primary users of
the environment in that they depend more on wood, water and soil for daily
survival even though their practical needs are not recognized by those who utilize

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the environment as a productive resource. Perhaps the same ideologies are partly
responsible for the general marginalisation of women at most levels of
development decision-making. Thi~ further, has implications on both
environmental management and sustainable development (Waswa et al., 2004).

9.3 Application of Gender Perspectives in Sustainable

Development
One of the main approaches to women's inclusion in development was developed
in the 1970s. This approach, known as Women in Development (WID) emphasizes
that women are an untapped resource that can provide an economic contribution
to development as key actors in the economic system (Moser, 1993). The approach
criticized earlier development approaches that focused on men's potentials and
contributions without acknowledging women as bearing significant reserves in
knowledge, expertise and capabilities. It insisted that women must be part and
parcel of development planning, implementation and analysis. WID also stresses
that development in varied fields would proceed faster if women are fully
incorporated.· WID has an exclusive focus on women, a factor which contributed
to its dwindling popularity as later analysts felt that it ignored the gendered
dynamics of contribution and involvement.

Later on, there was a shift to newer approaches that would integrate both gender,
hence the concept Gender in Development (GAD) arose. In GAD, the focus is on
gender rather than women per se and the objective revolves around shifting the
focus from biological differences of women and men to the social relationships
between men and women while translating these into strengths than can be
tapped for development (Moser, 1993). GAD emphasizes that men and women
play different roles in society due to varying factors, which may be ideological,
historical, religious, ethnic, economic or cultural. It maintains that focusing on
both women and men reveals the gendered relationships that produce varying
patterns of involvement for both sexes, which can be utilized positively to increase
productivity and development.

GAD also does acknowledges the differential roles and potentials of both gender
but affirms the equal importance of these roles. According to Wallace (1991) and
Moser (1993), women have a triple role which includes not just reproductive work
but also productive work such as involvement in agriculture or informal sector
and also community management work which comprises the provision of items of
collective consumption undertaken in the local community whether in rural or
urban areas. In environmental terms, women's community management may
involve such tasks as reforestation, communal waste management and even the
organization of sustainable water projects. It needs to be emphasised however
that GAD as an approach can succeed in addressing the biological differences
between men and women, if only it rids off the "divine ordination", supposedly

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the determinant that underlies most of the factors mentioned above that see the
control of women by men as "natural". Ironically, women in certain communities
see patriarchy as natural".

Arising from Gender concepts are frameworks that have been developed as
guidelines towards proper integration of both sexes in development planning
and sustainability. These include: the Harvard analytical framework designed by
the Havard School to demonstrate that there is an economic case for allocating
resources to women as well men (Candida, 1993); the Moser framework which
concentrates on the gendered division of labour in society citing the triple roles of
women (reproduction, production and community management), arid the double
roles of men (productive and community politics) as well as the practical and
strategic gender needs that these entail; the Gender analysis matrix, which aims at
helping determine the different impacts of development interventions on women
and men; and the Social Relations approach, which focuses on how development
affects the general human well-being of both women and men and how policies
can be suited to integrate both gender (Candida, 1993).

9.4 Mainstreaming Gender in Sustainable Environmental

Management

The rationale for a gendered approach to environmental sustainability cannot be

overemphasized. The very notion of differential use and relation to the
environment for both women and men forms the basis for the necessity of a gender
approach. It is documented that there is a growing awareness of the ecological
consequences of production and development policies on both women and men.
Women for instance, have come to the fore in matters of ecological management,
a role that has often been ignored. Women all over the world are now taking up
the role of community management and carrying on campaigns to oppose the
mismanagement of the environment. Further, women as gatherers of fuel and
water, care givers for families, sick and elderly have valuable information about
their environment, which can be tapped towards sustainable environmental
management. For instance, women as primary users of water have played a critical
role in managing and maintaining water resources. Also there is the increased
awareness that harms to the environment affect women enormously. For instance,
air pollution can cause infertility and birth defects.

According to Wallace (1991), women's role in environment and development

needs to be acknowledged because ignoring women has negative effects on other
development efforts. In the past, some development projects have acted directly

19 The third author of this chapter lived in India from 1987- I996 and observed that while some women groups are quite

advanced in their demand for women's empowerment and gender equity, equally extreme women groups are still in
existence there who believe that the idea of empowerment is not in line with their age-old traditions (Otor, 200 I).

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against the interests of women. In Iran for instance, rural communal laundry
facilities were built with large rectangular sinks rising up to an adult's waist
height. Iranian women, however, traditionally wash clothes in a squatting position
and thus could not use the new laundry facilities culminating in a waste of
resources that could have benefited other areas of development. As such, leaving
out women in project development decision-making may prove detrimental even
when such projects are well intentioned.

Women are also said to comprise a large number of the world's poorest and in
many cases, they represent the bulk of caretakers and family supporters. In most
of Africa, the lure of the towns and search for urban employment has left many
women with the burden of supporting families as men have migrated to urban
areas. That leaves many women in Africa as the invisible managers of their
environment whether by will or through circumstances (Khasian, 1992).

The differential use of the environment by men and women cannot be disputed
(Table 9.1). More women than men collect essential items for use on everyday
basis from the environment. As such their wealth in indigenous environmental
knowledge is profoundly rich. On another level, both sexes differ in their use of
technology and energy, and their contribution to environmental pollution. Finally,
women tend to be affected most by the negative effects of environment degradation
and at times have no choice than to contribute to it further. For instance, women
tend to adopt the wait and see attitude when it comes to major conservation
decision-making, in the absence of their husbands, who by being vested with
land ownerships rights, remain the bona fide decision-makers. Women also
happen to be affected more by environmental disasters of various kinds such as.
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and flooding.

Table 9.1. Involvement of both genders in selected work categories in Africa

Work Catezorv Women Men
Ploughing 30% 70%
Planting 50% 50%
Livestock rearing 50% 50%
Harvesting 60% 40%
Weeding 70% 30%
Processing and storing crops 85% 15%
Domestic work 95% 05%

Source: Rhoda (1991)

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These facts therefore indicate that women and men's roles, including their patterns
of consumption of environmental resources need to be carefully analysed and
integrated in development policy and planning. Further, the health and
sustainability of the environment involves the recognition of both a consumer's
rights and responsibilities (Rhoda (1991).

9.5 Gender and Current Environmental Concerns in Africa

The African continent has various ecosystems, which imply different survival
modes for her close to 900 million inhabitants. However, there are certain
fundamental resources that are crucial and pertinent to development all over
Africa irrespective of the particular ecosystem in question. These issues have to
do with the most basic necessities or resources for life. These include among others
land, forests, fresh water and urban ecosystems.

Land

Being agrarian, livelihoods in most African countries are land dependent. The
concern over land in Africa has therefore to do with the problems of land
degradation, soil pollution, land distribution, access, control and propensity to
benefit from it. According Waswa et al (2002) land tenure security including
rights relating to land use, transfer, inclusion and exclusion represent complex
dynamics for the African continent and its future, and has profound implications
for social, economic and political progress. Suffice is to note that women in most
parts of Africa have limited access to land and even when they do, they have no
right over such land and neither do they have control over the produce arising
from the same. Yet, women as already highlighted comprise the majority of primary
producers of food and cash crops (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1998).

Currently, women's access to land has become more fragile because agrarian
social relations, which give them access to land and other rural resources have
become highly politicised. Further, the marginalisation of women particularly in
the area of land management, decision-making, distribution of family labour and
access to household income is bound to translate into more land degradation and
poverty. As such policy measures towards sustainable land management in Africa
should among others integrated the combined responsibilities of women and men
regardless of who owns the land; evaluate the dissemination of information on
proper land use, carefully analysing who gets assess to it, who utilizes it and
reasons why it is not utilized; seek to create alternative livelihood means for the
many rural poor who are wholly dependent on land for survival; de-stereotype
women's roles in land management; and avail adequate and appropriate training
on land use, which calls for governments to intensify extension work and make it
gender friendly and responsive. Further, being largely an attitude problem,

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reversals in gender insensitivity require simultaneous application of education,

incentives, and coercion (Waswa et al., 2004).

Forests

In Africa, forest products contribute around 6% of the GDP in the region, which
is among the highest in the world. However, Africa's share of forest products in
trade is only 2%, lower than the world average of 3%. African forests cover an
area of about 520 million hectares and constitute about 17% of the world's forests
(UNEP, 2000). This percentage will continue to decline commensurate with
unending reliance of forests and forest products for subsistence especially when
it comes to agricultural expansion, commercial harvesting, increased firewood
collection, inappropriate land and tree tenure regimes, heavy livestock grazing
and accelerated urbanization and industrialization. In Western and Central
African regions where tropical humid forests are located, commercial harvesting
of the nearly 200 million M3 of wood is carried out annually in the region with
nearly 90% of it being consumed as firewood and charcoal, and only 2% as
industrial round wood. Large-scale exploration and mining in Western and
Central Africa have also led to the loss of forest resource, especially in Cameroon,
the Congo, Gabon and Nigeria. Notably, there are varying patterns of involvement
across both genders in these activities. For instance, more men are involved in
commercial harvesting of timber while more women are involved in firewood
collection. Other factors fuelling deforestation include drought, civil wars and
bush fires (UNEP, 2000).

More important is that exploitation of forests and its aftermath has gender
implications. Sustainable forest management thus requires a gendered strategy.
While various policy measures in this regard have been advanced, the most
important is perhaps the provision of alternative income generating activities and
energy sources to the majority of the rural poor, both men and women who depend
on forests for their daily livelihood.

Fresh Water

Although there has been an increase in the percentage of population with access
to clean fresh water globally during the 1990s, rapid population increase has still
left an estimated 1.2 billion people lacking potable water. By 2025, when world
population is projected at 8 billion, 48 countries, Kenya included will face water
shortage (Hinrichsen et al., 2000). Water scarcity, stress and poor quality are
thus endemic problems in Africa, and have equally important gender implications
due to the role of water in domestic and agricultural domains. For instance, many
women in Africa spend many hours in search of water, which greatly reduces
their involvement in other responsibilities that impact human well-being. Water

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management policies (conservation and safety) thus need to integrate gender

dynamics in the effort to create sustainable societies.

Urban ecosystems

In Africa, the major cities experiencing rapid growth include Nairobi, Oar es
Salaam, Lagos and Kinshasa which grew seven fold during 1950-80 period mainly
because of rural-urban migration (UNEP, 2000). Urban dwellers make heavy
demands on the environment since they are both the greatest consumers of
resources and principal generators of solid waste compared to their rural
counterparts. The relevant concerns with regard to urban ecosystems include the
fact that urban growth has implications in terms of demands for shelter, pollution
and increased poverty. Notably, these problems are more detrimental for women
and children. Furthermore, urban encroachment into agricultural and other
resources affects both men and women differently. Policies addressing urban
degradation must be sensitive to the needs of both men and women and urban
rehabilitation must aim at lessening the burdens on women and children.

9.6 Mainstreaming Gender into Sustainable Development Policy

The effective integration of gender sensitive policies in environment and sustainable
development depends on several factors. Firstly, it is important for both sexes to
be involved at all levels of the decision making process, all levels of policy making
and project designing, planning, implementation and evaluation. Only in so doing
can policies and projects respond to the varied needs of both men and women
and only then can the capabilities and potentials in each case be fully utilized for
sustainability. The gender-based discrepancies in decision-making, whether at
government, ministerial or institutional levels need to be brought to the fore and
addressed.

Policies must also be sensitive to the varying social economic experiences of both
gender and appropriate strategies must be elected for men and women's where
need be. Socio-cultural factors that affect the relationships between women and
men must also be integrated into this analysis. It is also important for policies to
address the need to create public sensitivity to the matters of sustainable
environment and development with clear goals and strategies that are easy to
understand and implement. In addition, both genders should be enlightened on
the long-term effects of environmental sustainability and how this fits within the
context of development and human welfare.

According to Rhoda (1991), there is also need to carefully assess the needed
strategies for implementation of policy. It might be required to have different
approaches for women and for men though as much as possible, both sexes should

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be integrated to prevent isolation and marginalisation. There is also need for careful
analysis of local gender structures relations. This would help avoid the danger of
using imported notions of gender because gender roles and relations are not
universal forms and often, what works in one case may not work in another.

According to Picard (1996), environment policy should take into account the
gendered division of labour in especially agricultural livelihood systems, domestic
arrangements such as fuel wood collection and the gender differences in the
management and exploitation of natural resources. It is also important to consider
at the household and community levels, the prevailing gender divisions and access
to resources such as land, forest and others. There is also need to investigate how
women and men organize to mobilize labour and other resources.
Environment and sustainable development policies should also of necessity address
the direction of related services such as extension, credit and information whose
distribution often happens to favour men.

Further, current policies should be ana lysed with respect to their effect on men
on one side and women on the other whether these effects be intended or
accidental. Such policies can then be reformulated to maximize positive impacts
on both genders. The gender based indigenous knowledge of natural resource
conservation should also be considered since it is emergent that both genders
represent different domains of knowledge. The phenomena of female-headed
household and male-headed household should be analysed as a factor of economic
status and access to and control over resources at both the household and the
community level.

9.7 Mobilizing Women for Environmental Management:

The Case of Green Belt Movement in Kenya

The Green Belt Movement is a grass-root and community based organization

focused on mobilizing rural women to plant trees for environmental sustainability.
To date, the movement has enhanced the planting of over 30 million trees. The
Green Belt Movement has programmes spread in several areas namely, the Mt.
Kenya and Aberdare regions, Western highlands areas, Lake Victoria catchment
areas, Coastal and Nairobi regions. Started way back in 1974 then as Envirocare
by Prof. Wangari Maathai and boosted by her involvement in the National Council
for Women in Kenya which later adopted community tree planting as part of its
activities in 1977, the Green Belt Movement has developed as a method of tree
planting that involves the establishment of community strips of trees and agro-
forestry practices to a popular movement empowering women, protecting the
environment and inspiring the public (Maathai, 1988).

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The Green Belt Movement arose as a response to local needs and the recognition
of community responsibility towards the environment. The movement has over
the years, utilized indigenous abilities, ideas and resources to protect the
environment and to empower the local people in all its areas of operation. Among
its major objectives are:

Conservation of indigenous trees, shrubs and other flora

The movement aims at ensuring that the extinction of indigenous vegetation is

curtailed through conserving the genetic resources for the maintenance of the
ecological balance and to ensure sustainable provision of animal fodder, fruits,
honey, timber, herbal medicine, building materials and all other related resources.

Control of desertification and conservation of water

The movement has also aimed at preventing the onset of desertification by ensuring
that catchment areas are protected and that new trees are planted to upgrade
biomass levels.

Provision of fuel-wood

In Kenya and most parts of Africa, fuel wood remains the major source of energy
for most rural households. The inadequacy of fuel wood has been felt in most
parts of Africa posing an extra burden to especially women who are its main
gatherers. The Green Belt Movement has endeavoured to mobilize women groups
to plant trees nurseries for sale thus improving landscapes and providing fuel
wood in a sustainable way for many of such households.

Control of soil erosion

The movement has at its core the objective of soil conservation, which has especially
been a problem of highly cultivated marginal regions within the country. Hence
the movement endeavours to improve tree coverage in previously over-cultivated
areas, deforested regions, cultivated riverbeds, slopes and overgrazed areas.

Improvement of income generation

In essence, the Green Belt Movement has aimed at making tree-planting an income-
generating activity for women hence the movement enables women to produce
tree seedlings that are sold to farmers and other institutions thereby providing an
income for the women and encouraging self-employment.

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Food security

In most parts of Africa, food insecurity is a recurrent problem. In almost all cases,
food insecurity is a consequence of land degradation, drought and improper
farming methods. In promoting tree planting and agro-forestry, the movement
aims at enhancing land productivity, soil conservation and regular rainfall, which
are critical in food security endeavours.

Creating awareness and public sensitisation on environmental issues

The movement has also endeavoured to focus the attention of the public both in
Kenya and elsewhere on the need to preserve the environment. Through the public
displays and campaigns, the movement has drawn public attention to the need
for sound social/ environment policy, need for government to take lead in
conserving the environment, the role of literacy and empowerment of both women
and the youth in this endeavour, the importance of equality of opportunity in
tackling the problems of poverty and scarce natural resource.

Modus Operandi

The Green Belt Movement has worked with rural communities in many parts of
Kenya. However, the initiative for action is always left to the communities
themselves. In a nutshell, the movement mobilizes communities through
conducting sensitisation and mobilization forums where the values and goals of
the movement are exposed. After such forums, interested individuals arc invited
to form groups, which can register with the movement.

The second task involves helping such persons to register a group, which is dOJ1L'
at no cost. The movement will assist in the registration through a field facilitator
(FF) and a Green Volunteer (GV). After such registration, the group begins to
receive assistance on how to prepare tree nurseries and how to proceed with
sowing. Also, such a group is shown how to source seeds from indigenous and
exotic tree species from the forest and plant them in nurseries. The movement
may provide the initial seedlings to the group. After this, the growing trees are
transplanted into plastic bags before distribution. The GV monitors and reports
to the office of the movement the progress being made by the group.

Once the seedlings are ready for distribution, the group makes it known to the
community and requests those interested to prepare holes for planting, which
may be checked by group members to ensure they are properly dug and that the
soil supply and fertility is proper. Once the seedlings have been planted, a report
on the same is sent to the headquarters of the movement who in turn make a
partial payment to the group as an incentive for their input. From here on, the

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group continues to follow up with the seedlings purchasers for a month to verify
survival rate and care. After three months, another report is sent to Green Belt
movement headquarters which then purchases the seedlings from the group as a
compensation for the number of trees planted and surviving (Green Belt
Movement, 2003)

Accomplishments

The major achievements of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya include among
others the planting of 30 million trees in critical areas through tree-planting
campaigns. The movement has also managed to create employment and incomes
for thousands of women who plant tree nurseries and sell seedlings to mainly
farmers throughout the country. In addition, the movement employs about 100
field staff. Further, the movement has managed to mobilize many women who
participate on a regular basis in tree planting and advocacy programmes aimed
at creating awareness and conserving the environment.

Through the movement, the public in general has been made aware of the various
benefits of environmental care and the need for national policies that are in line
with environmental sustainability. The advocacy carried out by the movement is
a milestone in curtailing wanton misuse of the environment devoid of social
responsibility. Cases in point here include the preservation of Uhuru Park and
Karura Forest.both of which have been earmarked for destruction were it not for
the campaigns mounted by the movement. (Green Belt Movement, 2003)
The movement has acted as a blueprint for many other environment related
organizations. For instance, individuals from other countries within Africa have
contacted the movement for training and courses have been mounted for among
others participants from Tanzania, Somali, Sudan, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Burundi, Uganda, Swaziland and Zambia. In this regard, UNEP and
other international bodies have also been involved.

Lessons learnt

From the work of the Green Belt Movement, several lessons can be learnt for
replication and application into sound environmental policy. Firstly, the focus of
the movement has been on women as key players in environmental management
(i.e. use, care and improvement). The movement has mobilized no less than 30,000
women throughout the region who apart from actively participating in greening'
I

the country, have also eked a living and conducted campaigns towards proper
care and conservation of the environment. This focus is important as it brings to
the core of environmental sustainability, a previously marginalized group and
builds on both their indigenous and acquired knowledge to broadly tackle the
problem of environmental degradation and improved human well-being.

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There is need to respond to community needs in the design and application of

sound environmental policy. For instance, the movement responds directly to
people's concerns by ensuring that its programs are relevant and translate into
immediate and tangible benefits to communities. As such communities respond
positively to environmental conservation activities and begin to feel responsible
for it together with seeing it from a long-term perspective.

Existence of incentives for communities contributes to sustained participation in

environmental conservation. Though in the long run communities must take over
and manage their own conservation efforts without particularly being
compensated, the compensations received from movement serve to demonstrate
that the care of the environmental is a rewarding venture. However, communities
must be helped to see that the rewards from environmental conservation are of
long-term nature and of greater value than the monetary compensation received.

By reaching out to the poor, the movement has also demonstrated that change
must also come from below and that mere policies and plans cannot work on
their own unless they are decoded as meaningful and can be implemented at the
community level. The patient work of training the communities, working with
them, applauding their achievements however small are critical lessons for
sustainable development and environmental care. Finally, this does not mean
that the focus should be one-sided but that those at the top whether within
government or without must be reached through publicity and other means and
that their public pronouncements must translate into community focused action
because at the end of the day, it is one and all who are the beneficiaries of the
gains made in environmental conservation.

9.8 Emerging Research Needs

Though a lot of research has been done in terms of assessing the effect of human
activity on the environment and the corresponding challenges with regard to
development and environmental sustainability, there is need to delve deeply into
how gender, environment and development affect one another and the intrinsic
relationship in these factors that can be exploited for sustainability and
conservation of world's resource. Several areas of further research are detailed
below.

• More research is needed on how Indigenous Knowledge Strategies (IKES)

can be integrated with gendered strategies and modern environmental
conservation efforts for sustainability.
• Research is also required on how increased growth of the informal sector
and informal industries has affected the environment bearing in mind the
overrepresentation of women in the sector and its widening importance
in providing jobs for millions of unemployed Africans.

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• It may also be important to continue researching on the changing gender

roles and gender relationships within the African family and how they
relate to the changing use of the environment and development in general.
• There is need also to research on the current population trends in Africa,
which include an enlarging older population and declining youth
population, which also has gender dimensions. There is need to document
how these trends relate to environmental conservation and sustainable
development.
• Further research is also required in the area of the impact of HIV/ AIDS in
Africa on the sustainability of the environment with an emphasis on gender
since HIV/ AIDS affects sexes differently.
• There is need to document how current economic policies in Africa support
the massive conversion of bush and forest into agricultural production
areas and how indiscriminate use of water resources for irrigation and
the privatisation of commonly held land has affected environmental
sustainability.
• Research should also be conducted into how the educational curriculum
can become a more sensitising tool in environment matters and how the
role of gender factors can be lucidly brought out in it.
• More research is needed on the highly talked about but less understood
process of globalisation and its effect on gender and environment as far as
Africa is concerned.

9.9 Sample Questions

i. Critically examine the importance of integrating gender analysis in combating
land degradation and desertification in Kenya.

11. Women marginalisation leads to feminisation of poverty and hence

environmental degradation and poor livelihoods. Discuss this assertion using
relevant local examples.

iii. Critically examine the opportunities and challenges of mainstreaming gender

in environmental management and governance.

9.10 Bibliography
Hekman, S. J. 1990. Gender and Knowledge: Elements of a Postmodern Feminism.
Polity Press. Cambridge.
Hinrichsen, D. and Robey, B. (eds). 2000. Population and the Environment: The
Global Challenge, Population Report Series No. 15. Baltmore, John Hopkins
University, School of Public Health, Population Programme. Fall, 2000.

156 A Guide for Tertiary Education in Kenya

 Environment and Sustainable Development

Institute of Economic Affairs. 1998. Our Problems, our Solutions: an economic

and public agenda for Kenya. Gatheru, Wand Shaw, R (eds), Nairobi.
IUCN 2004. Mainstreaming Gender in IUCN
www.geroyambiente.org/ poli ticas I docs Ii ucngenderpolicy Accessed on
23"1/11/04.
Khasiani, S. Eds 1992. Groundwork: African Women as Environmental Managers.
ACTS Press. Nairobi.
Maathai, W. 1988. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the
Experience. Environmental Liaison Centre International. Nairobi.
Moser, C. 1993. Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and
Training. Routledge, London.
Otor, S C]. 2001. Gender and Empowerment: An Intervention for Intra-household
Micro-networking in the Eastern African Region. Pro. of the 11 th Annual
Conference of Eastern Africa Environmental Network (EAEN), Nairobi,
97-102.
Picard, M. 1996. A Guide to the Gender Dimension of Environment and Natural
Resources Management. USAID, Amex International Inc.
Rhoda, A. 1991. Women and the Environment. Zed books. London.
Sontheimer, S. 1991. Women and the Environment: A Reader-Crisis and
Development in the Third World. Earthscan Publications Ltd. London.
The Green Belt Movement. 2003. Annual Report 2003, Revised Edition. Nairobi.
Udry, J. R. 1994. The Nature of Gender. Demography, 3 (4) 561-573.
UNEP 2000. Global Environmental Outlook 2000. www.unep.org/GEO-20001
Accessed 14/10/2004.
Waswa, F., Eggers, H., and Kutsch, T. 2002. Beyond Land Titling for Sustainable
Management of Agricultural Land: Lessons from Ndome and Ghazi in
Taita Taveta, Kenya. Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in
the Tropics and Sub tropics, Vol. 103, vol. 2: 107-115.
Waswa, F., Kutsch, T. and Muthengi, K. 2004. Gender-Land Degradation-
Livelihood Nexus. Lessons from Ndome and Ghazi in Taita Taveta, Kenya.
In: Temu et al (eds). Rebuilding Africa's Capacity for Agricultural
Development. The Role of Tertiary Education. African Network for
Agroforesty Education (ANAFE), 320-329.

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