Renewable Resources
Renewable resources—including forest products, water, agriculture, and fisheries, among others—are essential to livelihoods, food security, and basic services. Women and men often play different roles in the use and management of renewable resources. Women make considerable contributions to food security through subsistence farming and collecting wild products, and are often the primary managers of the water, sanitation, and fuel that households depend on. Furthermore, women are often custodians of traditional knowledge that is vital for seed and plant conservation, further contributing to both food security and biodiversity conservation.
In conflict-affected settings, coping mechanisms can rapidly degrade these resources, reducing the overall availability and quality of natural resources due to intensified land use, deforestation, and damaged water infrastructure, among other causes. Women are often responsible for collecting, farming or transforming these renewable resources for household consumption, however they face significant barriers to participate in decision-making processes related to natural resource management. The social structures that govern resource management in rural communities can similarly be affected by conflict, further impacting women’s access to resources on which their households and livelihoods depend.
Experience has shown that understanding women’s specific roles, involving women in the design and implementation of interventions, and ensuring their representation in resource management mechanisms, can benefit not only women, but communities and societies as a whole. However, peacebuilding and economic recovery programs often invest in renewable resource sectors (such as agriculture and tourism) without considering either traditional or new gender roles. As a result, such programming often benefits men over women, with important trickle-down impacts on communities and economies. Leveraging women’s unique knowledge of natural resource management – and their leadership potential – is key at every step of sustaining peace.
Key Resources
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