30 years of gender and forests

Currently, there is much interest in mainstreaming gender in natural resource management, including forestry. The new Earthscan Reader on Gender and Forests, co-edited by our gender specialist Marlène Elias provides a collection of key articles on gender and forests published over the last 30 years.

This new publication provides a kind of historical trajectory of interest and analysis that could be beneficial to researchers interested in gender and forests. "A lot of work has been done on gender and forests, but there is no compilation that really takes a historical view of where we’ve been and how thinking in this area has developed," said Dr. Bimbika Sijapati-Basnett, Scientist & Gender Researcher, CIFOR, and co-editor of the reader.

The authors give a special shout out to practitioners and urge them to read the book. "Practitioners may find particular chapters useful that focus on the specific themes on which they work (such as tenure, migration, forest farming, and others). Readers interested in particular geographic or topical areas can go to those sections directly (North America, Europe, South and South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa). But the entire compilation is also useful, as it contextualizes the importance of each of the chapters towards our current understanding of gender and forests, and points out the key aspects each chapter has contributed towards our current way of thinking. Short regional introductions highlight some themes of particular relevance for those living and working in those regions. Each introduction provides an overview and the conclusion is forward looking to the global trends we need to consider to adequately plan for more equitable and sustainable forest management," says Marlène Elias, Gender Specialist, Bioversity International.

The Earthscan Reader on Gender and Forestsis now available as a print book and later on will be downloadable for free through the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) website.

Learn more by reading this interview with the authors published on CIFOR's blog Forests News

^{Photo: Women are vital tenants of both livelihoods and landscapes. Photo credit: CIFOR}