Plans to Prevent Future Pandemics Must Consider Gender Issues, Too (Commentary)

May 6, 2020 | Tyler Nuckols
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As COVID-19 continues to wrack our lives, the topic of the illegal wildlife trade and its connection to the coronavirus has garnered recent headlines. Many organizations, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, are taking proactive measures to step up their efforts to end this illegal trade of wildlife and prevent the risk of future zoonotic pandemics. But are these plans and policies considering the impacts of gender-based issues, such as sex-trafficking and forced labor, on the success or failure of the outcomes in these same spaces?

While these topics may seem unrelated, a critical new study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shines a spotlight on the interconnection of women’s rights and environmental conservation. The report, Gender-based violence and environment linkages: The violence of inequality, provides an in-depth look at the pervasive problem of gender-based violence (GBV) and the relevance of this societal problem in three critical environmental contexts: (1) access to and control of natural resources; (2) ecological pressure and threats; (3) and environmental action to defend and conserve ecosystems and resources. The data in this report show that the issues are inextricably connected on a global scale, and preventing gender-based violence and promoting gender equality can meaningfully contribute to conservation work.