Women and forestry : operational issues

Women are major actors in forestry throughout the developing world. Women and children are the primary collectors of fuel and fodder for home consumption and for sale to urban markets. This alone gives women a major role in the management and conservation of renewable forest resources. When convinced of the utility and practicality of a forest improvement or management scheme, women can be a powerful lobby to persuade their entire houshold or community to invest the resources necessary to make the scheme work. Involving women in forestry projects often makes the difference between achieving or not achieving project objectives, particularly for the long-term sustainability of interventions.Environmental Economics&Policies,Forests and Forestry,Forestry,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Forest conservation in Nepal: Encouraging women\u27s participation

This issue of SEEDS focuses on ways in which women have been involved in a government forest conservation and restoration program in Nepal. As is common with many large-scale projects with a general impact, women were not a direct focus of the project\u27s original design. As activities got underway, however, both the Nepali staff and their expatriate colleagues quickly realized that the direct involvement of women was crucial to the success of the project\u27s participatory strategy. Over the initial five years, 1980 to 1985, a number of approaches to addressing women\u27s needs and generating their active participation were tried. The report details lessons learned about encouraging women to participate in such projects

La conservation des forêts au Népal: Encourager la participation des femmes

Ce numéro de SEEDS porte sur les moyens mis en oeuvre pour faire participer les femmes à un programme gouvernemental visant à preserver et à restituer la forêt au Népal. Comme il arrive fréquemment lors de la mise en place de projets aussi vastes ayant une portée generale, les femmes n\u27étaient pas un centre d\u27intérêt spécifique au moment de la conception du projet. Cependant, lorsque les activités ont demarré, les responsables népalais du projet et leurs collègues de l\u27étranger se sont tres vite rendus compte que le succès du programme dépendait de la participation directe des femmes aux activités du projet. Au cours des cinq premières années, de 1980 a 1985, on a tenté diverses approches pour mettre en place des activités qui repondaient aux besoins des femmes et suscitaient leur participation. Le rapport détaille les leçons apprises sur l\u27encouragement des femmes à participer à de tels projets. This issue of SEEDS focuses on ways in which women have been involved in a government forest conservation and restoration program in Nepal. As is common with many large-scale projects with a general impact, women were not a direct focus of the project\u27s original design. As activities got underway, however, both the Nepali staff and their expatriate colleagues quickly realized that the direct involvement of women was crucial to the success of the project\u27s participatory strategy. Over the initial five years, 1980 to 1985, a number of approaches to addressing women\u27s needs and generating their active participation were tried. The report details lessons learned about encouraging women to participate in such projects

El papel de las mujeres en la conservación de los bosques del Nepal

Este número de SEEDS pone de relieve las formas en que se ha hecho participar a las mujeres en un programa gubernamental de conservación y restauración de bosques en Nepal. Como en muchos proyectos de gran escala e impacto generalizado, las mujeres no tenían un papel específico en el diseño original del proyecto. Pero una vez que comenzaron las actividades, tanto el personal nepales como sus colegas extranjeros tuvieron que reconocer que para que la estrategía participative pudiera funcionar, era esencial contar con las mujeres. De ahí que durante los primeros cinco anos del proyecto (1980–85) se probaron varias maneras de responder a las necesidades de las mujeres y motivar su participación activa. El informe detalla las lecciones aprendidas sobre cómo alentar a las mujeres a participar en tales proyectos. This issue of SEEDS focuses on ways in which women have been involved in a government forest conservation and restoration program in Nepal. As is common with many large-scale projects with a general impact, women were not a direct focus of the project\u27s original design. As activities got underway, however, both the Nepali staff and their expatriate colleagues quickly realized that the direct involvement of women was crucial to the success of the project\u27s participatory strategy. Over the initial five years, 1980 to 1985, a number of approaches to addressing women\u27s needs and generating their active participation were tried. The report details lessons learned about encouraging women to participate in such projects

Organization and governance for fostering pro-poor compensation for environmental services

This paper is the 8th in a series of nine interlinked papers commissioned by the Rural Poverty and Environment Programme (RPE) of the International Development Research Center (IDRC) as part of a research project entitled ‘Scoping Study of Compensation for Ecosystem Services’. The purpose of this project is to provide the RPE with a broader and richer deliberation on the potential for economic instruments (including market, financial and incentive based instruments) which conserve ecosystem services and at the same time contribute to poverty reduction in the developing world. // This paper was prepared by Forest Trends, Ecoagriculture Partners and the Rights and Resources Initiative, with the support of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) office in Sri Lanka, as well as coauthors of the remaining issue papers in the series. The purpose of this paper is to assess the requirements, current state and key issues related to organization and governance in the compensation and reward for ecosystem services (CRES) needed to achieve pro-poor outcomes. It reviews the institutional evolution of CRES both conceptually and in practice, and presents a broad view of the many governance, legal and political economy related aspects of CRES. // To increase potential for pro-poor outcomes of CRES, the opportunity for local conditions to define the supporting institutional structures and norms that surround CRES is critical. There are a wide range of institutional models of CRES that can benefit the poor, and these tend to include features such as: building upon and strengthening existing institutions of the poor, allowing flexibility in land use options and in the timeframe for adoption and adaptation of land use, simplification of monitoring and reporting to fit local capacity, and orientation and training of intermediary organizations who serve as brokers to the poor and help them to aggregate supply of CRES services and mediate with buyers. Some key priority actions and areas for further research conclude the paper