By Emma Muench, 9th November 2021
Our November issue’s special section on gender and conservation explores a wide range of topics, from women’s relationships with sacred forests or wildlife crime, to the benefits and costs of integrating gender into conservation projects and natural resource management, and much more! Our accompanying Briefly spotlight features gender-related conservation news. The lead article by Goldman et al. investigates women’s stories and knowledge of wildlife and conservation practice in northern Tanzania and South India. This special issue was curated with the help of Helen Anthem, Fauna & Flora International’s Senior Technical Specialist, Gender, Livelihoods and Governance. In the Editorial, Helen and Kame Westerman discuss how to make conservation effective and equitable for all. The issue also features a section on Conservation in Cambodia, with our cover image capturing the two themes, showing members of a lakeside community planting saplings to recreate the flooded forests around Tonle Sap lake.
Find out more about this issue’s content, including our Editor’s picks, below:
Gender and conservation
- Women’s stories and knowledge of wildlife and conservation practice in northern Tanzania and South India – Goldman et al.
- Access denied: understanding the relationship between women and sacred forests in Western India – Mokashi & Diemont
- Women and wildlife crime: hidden offenders, protectors and victims – Kahler & Rinkus
- Gender and payments for environmental services: impacts of participation, benefit-sharing and conservation activities in Viet Nam – McElwee et al. (see blog post here)
- Unpacking the perceived benefits and costs of integrating gender into conservation projects: voices of conservation field practitioners – Westerman et al. (see blog post here)
- Conservation and natural resource management: where are all the women? – James et al. (see blog post here)
- Biases in the production of knowledge on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation – Corbera et al.
Conservation in Cambodia
- Estimating hunting prevalence and reliance on wild meat in Cambodia’s Eastern Plains – Ibbett et al. (see blog post here)
- Using mixed methods to understand sensitive wildlife poisoning behaviours in northern Cambodia – de Lange et al. (see blog post here)
- IUCN captive management guidelines support ex situ conservation of the Bengal florican Houbaropsis bengalensis blandini – Mahood et al.
Behind the cover
Conservation is ultimately a social process, and gender—the socially constructed roles and attributes associated with males and females—is a fundamental concept that influences use of natural resources, priorities for conservation, and ability to engage in decision-making about those resources. This issue’s special theme on gender and conservation reflects on the role of women and gender in wildlife crime, payments for ecosystem services, sacred forests, and conservation research and practice, examining how more meaningful discussion and consideration of gender issues within conservation research and practice could lead to more effective and equitable outcomes. The cover image—members of a lakeside community recreating the flooded forests around Tonle Sap lake—links this theme to a section focusing on conservation in Cambodia. (Photograph © Jeremy Holden/FFI).
In the Peruvian Amazon, Conservation International is working with the Shampuyacu Indigenous community to support women in preserving their forests and in passing on their traditional knowledge. One of the small grants helped support a gender analysis and strategy for Conservation International’s work in the region. Photo: Marlon del Aguila. Read Kame Westerman’s blog post here.
Editorial
Conservation for all, by all: making conservation effective and equitable – Helen Anthem & Kame Westerman
‘Responding to gender inequalities within conservation should not be an optional extra. The breadth of the articles in this issue, reflecting on the role of women and gender in wildlife crime, payments for ecosystem services, sacred forests, and conservation research and practice, demonstrates that gender is relevant to all that we do. These articles all point to the need for greater attention to gender and the need for further research. More meaningful discussion and consideration of gender issues within conservation research and practice will lead to more effective and equitable outcomes, advancing conservation for all, by all.’
Other contents
- Occurrence and conservation of the Vulnerable titi monkey Callicebus melanochir in fragmented landscapes of the Atlantic Forest hotspot – Costa-Araújo et al. (see blog post here)
- Conservation research output in sub-Saharan Africa is increasing, but only in a few countries – Pototsky & Cresswell
- The northern bald ibis Geronticus eremita: history, current status and future perspectives – Böhm et al. (see blog post here)
- The need for multidisciplinary conservation: a case study of Ceratozamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales) in eastern Mexico – Martínez-Domínguez et al.
Women challenging conservation norms: Marilyn Gede. Photo: Kate Cranney/TNC. Read Robyn James’ blog post here.
Editor’s picks
- Biases in the production of knowledge on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation – Corbera et al.
- Estimating hunting prevalence and reliance on wild meat in Cambodia’s Eastern Plains – Ibbett et al.
- Occurrence and conservation of the Vulnerable titi monkey Callicebus melanochir in fragmented landscapes of the Atlantic Forest hotspot – Costa-Araújo et al.
- Conservation research output in sub-Saharan Africa is increasing, but only in a few countries – Pototsky & Cresswell
Conservation news
- Introduced Mona monkey is a key threat to the Critically Endangered Príncipe thrush – Guedes et al.
- The European LIFE+ northern bald ibis reintroduction project – Fritz
- Hope for an apex predator: giant otters rediscovered in Argentina – Leuchtenberger et al.
- Giant otters are negatively affected by a new hydropower dam in the most protected state of the Brazilian Amazon – Michalski & Norris
- Biodiversity hotspot and Ramsar site under threat – Pooley
- Endangered Australian marsupial species survive recent drought and megafires – Baker et al.
- Integrating Javan leopard conservation into a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in East Java, Indonesia – Wibisono et al.
- Dihing-Patkai and Raimona, Assam’s new National Parks – Choudhury
- The first confirmed pregnancy of a released Amazonian manatee – de Souza et al.
- Discovery of an intercontinental trade in porcupine bezoars from the Republic of the Congo – Sniegon et al.
- Liberian pangolins during the COVID-19 pandemic: market surveys for live animals, bushmeat and scales – Deemie et al.
- Resumption of natural reproduction of the Adriatic sturgeon in the River Po – Congiu et al.
- New Global Center for Species Survival launches programme of work – Kessler et al.
