Women in forestry: A study of Kenya's Green Belt Movement and Nepal's Community Forestry Program

Abstract

This literature review evaluates two programs that attempt to involve women in community-based forestry projects: the Green Belt Movement led by Wangari Maathai in Kenya, and Nepal's government-sponsored Community Forestry Program. To evaluate the extent to which each program is a successful community-based conservation venture, the recommendations developed at the Airlie House Community Based Conservation Workshop in 1993 are used. These recommendations stipulate that factors such as culture, participation, resource ownership, and skills and knowledge transfer must be taken into account for a community-based conservation venture to be successful. To evaluate the extent to which each program is successful in securing the active involvement of women, the study evaluates how well they overcome a set of four factors that commonly limit women's involvement in forestry projects, developed by Molnar in 1997; this list includes limited access to productive resources, limited decision-making roles, limited participation in the labor market and lack of incentives for project workers to incorporate women. By evaluating each program's strengths and weaknesses, the paper reveals certain characteristics, such as cultural awareness and the incorporation of civic education and skill development, that community forestry programs must have in order to successfully involve women in their efforts.