Gender Relations in Forestry: Beyond a Headcount

Apr 15, 2020 | Kate Evans
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Women can play a huge role as ‘critical actors’ in defending and managing their forests, says Ph.D. candidate and gender researcher Priyanka Bhalla from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

According to Bhalla, people often focus on numbers, such as how much of the committee were women, when they talk about success stories. In doing so, however, they forget about women acting as agents to implement positive processes.

In a chapter of a new book on Gender and Forests published by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bhalla examines women’s participation in India’s forest tenure reform process in the state of Odisha, and the ways critical events and processes have influenced their involvement.