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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Bhattarai, Basundhara |
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Conference:
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Sustaining Commons: Sustaining Our Future, the Thirteenth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons |
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Location:
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Hyderabad, India |
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Conf. Date:
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January 10-14 |
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Date:
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2011 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/7303
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Sector:
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Forestry |
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Region:
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Middle East & South Asia |
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Subject(s):
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community forestry
forestry
gender
women
participatory development
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Abstract:
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"Despite the rapid expansion of community- based forest governance in the recent years, there are limited cases where women’s meaningful participation has been realized. In Nepal, participation of women in community-based forestry is limited to increasing the numerical presence of women in its user groups and federations. A recent policy amendment has even required 50 percent women participation in its decision making bodies. Forestry being one of the primary livelihood strategies of village women, meaningful participation of women in their respective governance systems is indispensable. In this context, it is crucial to understand how effectively reservation policies have been able to enhance women’s participation in actual sense. This paper analyses the cases of two participatory forestry programmes - community forestry and leasehold forestry and explores whether, how and to what extent reservation policies have worked to augment women’s meaningful participation. It will also identify factors and conditions that contributed to or constrained meaningful participation of women. The paper argues that i) reservation policy has been able to bring some women in the policy making forums but it does not necessarily mean that women are empowered and that they have been able to influence the decisions; ii) prevalent social norms and unequal power relations that hinder women to be recognized socially as a individual agency need to be taken into account while dealing with women’s empowerment; iii) the level of freedom that women enjoy at household level is crucial determinant of their participation at community level governance; and iv) promoting women’s network and helping to establish the linkages with other women’s institutions can help women to gain collective strength to influence formulating gender sensitive policies and practices."
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