| dc.description.abstract | In rural Uganda women (and not men) are indeed the (invisible) managers of natural
resources. These resources include land, water, forests and wildlife. Rural women are
comparatively poor and uneducated and do not hold monthly paying jobs and therefore
are commonly referred to as housewives(Boserup, 1989). Nevertheless, these women are
great sustainers of rural micro-economic activities. However, their impact on this is significant
due to their indigenous knowledge on, the management . of natural resources such
as land, water, forests and wildlife(kinuthia,1993). Women are also important, because
their traditional gender roles bring them in direct contact with these natural resources.
There is a growing debate about gender and the environment which highlights women's
roles in the use and management of natural resources (Braidotti et al. 1994). This debate
has stimulated much development analysis and created greater awareness of the activities
of women farmers. There are dangers in conceiving of women's roles in relation to the
environment in a partial, narrow, or static way. Seeing women as isolated environmental
actors, separate from men, with an innate understanding of Nature can be very misleading.
Current development policy initiatives are often based on this essentialist assumption . \.
that women's relationship with the environment is special and, therefore, women are particularly
interested in and capable of protection of the environment. Such a view enables
policy makers to argue that projects aimed at sustaining the environment will also benefit
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women, and vice versa. This synergistic approach can be seen as creating both a trap
and an opportunity.
At the level of rhetoric and debate, it is widely understood that women, in their productive
and reproductive roles, have close links with the environment in many countries and that
they are often among the first to be affected by resource degradation. However, policy
makers do not always appreciate the diversity and complexity of the relationship between
women and the environment, resulting in unexpected failures in development projects.
For example, a tree-planting project in Ethiopia, using women as labour, was seen by
the funding agency as both improving the environment by reducing soil erosion and also
assisting women by providing employment and additional firewood. Local women, on the
other hand, see the tree planting as increasing their burden of work without improving
their lives because men controlled the land and the trees (Berhe 1994). Thus an understanding
of both property rights and the complexity of gender divisions of labour is vital
to an appreciation of the link between women and the environment.
To many poor rural farmers, women in the rural are as sustained by natural resources
because they use these resources to feed their families. Thus when the World Environmental
Protection and Conservation policies advocate for protection without any form of
use, while ignoring rural women, they become the greatest victims of such a policy.
Women constitute over half of the rural population. Women's activities range from family
economic activities to running of homes and rural development projects. They are also a
more appropriate group to target for cultural and social changes. Their activities in development
and family care put them in the central position regarding impacts to land and
other natural resources(Joekes,1987). Population increase leads to Destruction of forests,
riparian habitats and other sensitive areas arise from increase of population. To be able
to control population, improve rural development, and to protect natural resources, the
role of women is critical. On the other hand the natural. resources like; wildlife, forests,
wetlands, land, water and fisheries are decreasing. | en |
