IUCN Principle on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

This Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy reaffirms and further strengthens IUCN’s commitment to realising gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment and puts into place requirements for embedding a gender-responsive approach into its Programme and project portfolio. Another publication Gender equality for greener and bluer futures: why women’s leadership matters for realising environmental goals includes new IUCN data on the number of women leading environmental ministries, compared with previous data. It also highlights data on why gender equality and women’s empowerment are essential for global goals on achieving an inclusive and sustainable future.

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Mobilising finance in the shea value chain

A shea value chain created around a protected areas landscape in Ghana led to greater finance flowing into community and conservation. Mole National Park is a biodiverse ecosystem, and Ghana’s largest protected area. Communities surrounding the Park benefit from its natural resources, but were using them unsustainably. In 2008, A Rocha Ghana and IUCN Netherlands Committee implemented a Community Resource Management Area (CREMA), a governance and management framework created by the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, to empower local communities for natural resource management. Inhabitants designed a shared plan for the landscape that simultaneously addresses conservation and socio-economic wellbeing, including building a shea value chain. Implementing organisations engaged with the Savannah Food Company to become a business partner with the CREMAs, particularly women’s groups who collect shea nuts, and help create a fund to support conservation action in the community.

Community-based aquaculture development and marine protection

This solution addresses poverty reduction in Zanzibar for its coastal communities through a more sustainable management of their natural resources, additional income, and consequently, better quality of life. The approach of implementing ecological aqua farming of bath sponges with women in coastal communites promotes healthy economic growth, reduces environmental pressure and threats to marine life and othernatural wildlife, improves public health and strenghtens the economic and social status of women.

Promoting a gender approach in the conservation of Rwanda’s protected areas

To ensure the participation of women in conservation, a gender-based approach is being utilised in Rwanda. The Rwandan government has started to mainstream gender in protected area management and natural resource use. ARECO is a member of IUCN and supports community-based initiatives which focus on women’s participation in conservation, and lobbies for integrating specific participation of women in national policies

Empowered Women for Resilient Cities

The “Building a Climate Change Resilient City through Empowering Women” project funded within the context of the Town Twinning Action Between Turkey and the EU Grant Scheme was implemented by Çankaya Municipality with the technical support of the Nature Conservation Centre (DKM) and in partnership with Frankfurt Municipality and the Association of Women Mukhtars. The overall goal of the project was to combat climate change in urban areas through training and empowering women to become active pioneers in climate-related issues and projects. The project focused on creating an enabling environment where women are effectively integrated into local decision-making processes and duly considered in climate change policies.

Mainstreaming the recovery of marine fisheries and ecosystems through collective action and science

Mexican marine ecosystems are not exempt from overexploitation. Approximately 17% of the Mexican fisheries are overexploited, 70% are at the maximum sustainable yield, and only 13% are underexploited. With 41% of the Mexican population living in coastal municipalities and 11,000 coastal communities with less than 15,000 habitants mainly relying on the marine resources and ecosystems, sustainable fisheries are crucial to ensuring employment, income, and food security for many people.

COBI has developed four building blocks to reverse the degradation of the marine environment: 1) capacity building of leaders and fishing organizations, 2) sustainable fishing, 3) marine reserves, and 4) support to public policies. For each, COBI develops demonstrative models that can be adopted by fishing organizations and other stakeholders in Mexico and elsewhere.

The transversal elements of our work are collective action, citizen science, and gender equality.

Gobernanza y herbolaria por mujeres de la Reserva de la Biosfera Selva el Ocote

La buena gobernanza depende de una gestión eficaz en el aprovechamiento de los recursos a través de los diferentes usos de las plantas. El uso ceremonial, ritual o medicinal es parte del proceso de toma de decisiones en el manejo del territorio y de los ecosistemas en la Reserva de la Biósfera Selva El Ocote. Aquí, las mujeres han tenido un rol fundamental en el rescate y transmisión de los saberes de la herbolaria, uno de los principales recursos terapéuticos en el medio rural. Asimismo, se ha promovido la participación e intercambio de experiencias entre hombres, mujeres, jóvenes y adultos mayores, reconstruyendo y rescatando el conocimiento tradicional medicinal e histórico de las propias comunidades y revalorizando los servicios ambientales.

Se ha logrado replicar este conocimiento, lo que ha redundado en un gran apoyo social y económico, especialmente en este tiempo tan difícil que nos toca vivir, el de la pandemia del COVID-19.

Mama Fatuma and the seaweed farming development in the south coast of Kenya

Mama Fatuma, the hard working middle aged woman living in Kibuyuni Village of Kwale County embodies the success of seaweed farming on the Kenyan coast. In a village where the predominant economic activity of fishing is a preserve of the men, Mama Fatuma encouraged fellow women to embark on seaweed farming as an alternative economic activity to wean them off over-reliance on their men folk and to enable them contribute to the family income. Following research trials and support from various sectors, seaweed farming is now earning Kibuyuni Village over USD 11,000 from the initial USD 2,000 in 2012 and beginning to thrive in various places along the south coast of Kenya and improving livelihoods through provision of additional income for families to pay school fees, meet medical costs and diversify the economy. It has also generated interest in mariculture and marine science generally among the youth in coastal Kenya.

Integrating Value chain in Sustainable Solid Waste management in Kwale and Mombasa Counties, Kenya

The Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD)aims to combat plastic and waste pollution by promoting sustainable solid management through public education on impacts of plastics to the environment and demonstration of BATs/BEPs such as source separation of waste, reuse, recycling and recovery as well value chain efficiency.

The project seeks to conduct the following activities:

Equipping the women artisans with machinery, tools, and equipment for making sculptures and items out of plastic waste.
Training women artisans on product development and packaging.
Establishing a pilot waste segregation at source and management system for recovery, reuse, and recycle of plastic and other waste.
Training women artisans on marketing and how to maintain market linkages.
Undertaking a market research for their products.

Sea PoWer: an innovative seaweed farming technology to empower women

In Zanzibar, seaweed farming is a small-scale but important livelihood activity, carried out at 80% by women. Recently, declines in production were observed, proved to be mostly due to climate change.

Tubular nets – an innovation piloted in the context of the Sea PoWer initiative, have shown promise over the traditional “off-bottom” peg and rope technology to improve seaweed productivity and local ecosystem conditions. However, tubular nets are used in deeper waters, and thus, require swimming or boat handling skills that most women do not have. Establishing seaweed farms in deeper water, using new technologies, could only be a successful adaptation option, with institutional support, significant investment and through the empowerment of women and the participation of local communities.

EDGE of Existence programme

A capacity building programme to support emerging leaders spearhead conservation action for the most unique, extraordinary, and overlooked species on Earth (can indicate for same targets as CLP)

Gender and IWT toolkit

This toolkit provides practical guidance on gender integration in illegal wildlife trade. It details a step-by-step approach to conduct and integrate gender analysis into IWT work. You can work through the toolkit at your own pace, completing each step to move to the next. You can refer to this website or the full report at any time.

Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP)

CLP is an international capacity building programme that supports young conservationists in to undertake applied biodiversity projects. Each year, CLP calls for project applications in low- and middle-income countries and some high-income islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. Funding is awarded to teams of early-career conservationists to conduct scientific research, promote pro-conservation attitudes, and deliver tangible results to conserve and manage biodiversity.

There are three grant levels. Starting with a Future Conservationist Award, teams are supported to undertake small-scale research and awareness-raising projects. Then through Follow-up and Leadership awards, teams can implement larger projects over a longer period of time and implement deliver practical solutions while learning more complex decision-making, communication, and leadership skills. As part of the award, winning teams can access expertise from within the partner organisations and via our global Alumni Network, which includes past award-winners.

Programme staff members are also available to advise on project implementation, including guidance required during the planning and team training stages. Each year CLP runs a two-week Conservation Management & Leadership Course for recent award winners. CLP is a partnership of three leading biodiversity conservation organisations, BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora International, and Wildlife Conservation Society.