Can gender-sensitive forestry programmes increase women’s income? Lessons from a forest fringe community in an Indian province

Abstract

This study suggests gender-sensitive planning for rural community driven forest management programmes is a favourable way to increase women’s income and reduce the time women spend searching for forest produce and completing ancillary tasks, such as processing. Using primary collected data from a province in India, outcomes from a pioneer attempt to run a gender-sensitive participatory forestry programme were compared with more traditional practices. Notably, women in villages with a female-headed local forest management unit were found to be the major contributor to their family’s income which was received from forest sources after the programme was initiated.