Constraints to participation in Canadian forestry advisory committees: a gendered perspective

Abstract

Although the public advisory committee has become a very common tool for involving local people in forest management decisions, it does not necessarily broaden the base of public input and may simply replicate the challenges of access, representation, and capacity to participate that are found in wider society. As a category of social exclusion, this study explores why women are significantly underrepresented on forest management advisory committees in Canada and how these committees function as gendered units. Research involved 25 semistructured interviews with members (and former members) of two forest management advisory committees: Tembec in Manitoba and NewPage in Nova Scotia. The strongest evidence in our study suggests that these committees operate within male-dominated institutions and particular masculine norms that are simply taken for granted. Thus, social relations based on gender often go unacknowledged. Findings also showed that the lack of critical mass of women often limited the active participation of the small number of women involved in committee activities. Our empirical observations suggest that unless we attend to gender when involving communities in establishing strategies for forest management, we will reinforce gender disadvantage and exclusion and overrepresent industrial and utilitarian interests of forestry over other community and ecocentric values.