GENDER, LAND USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT;
ANALYZING TRENDS AND DIVERSITY
Mirjam de Bruijn, Ineke van Halsema & Heleen van den Hombergh
Fuelled by alarming processes of désertification, global warming and vanishing tropical rainforests,
'sustainable development' has become one of the major issues of récent decades.This growing
Worldwide concern has also been reflected in the academie debate. Research problems focus on the
interaction between people and their natural environment, and multidisciplinary and sometimes
interdisciplinary approaches have been adopted. The environmental sciences are now devoting
attention to the organization of resource use, access to natural resources, and the participation of
the local population in environmental projects. However, studies on the relation between human
beings, societies and their natural environment, have rarely sufficiently questioned who these
'people' are and 'what kind of societies' they live in. Gender and cultural diversity are only two
of the issues that have not received nearly enough attention.
This book takes these issues as its point of departure, elaborating upon the relations between
gender, land use and environmental management under a wide range of conditions in developing
countries. It is the product of a seminar organized in Amsterdam in May 1995," primarily for
researchers in the CERES (Center for Resource Studies) network, but open to other researchers
permanently or temporarily based in the Netherlands. The aim was to focus on the efforts being
made at Dutch academie development research institutions to work towards understanding the
interlinkages berween gender, land use and environmental management, and see what lessons could
be learnt with regard to trends and diversity in these interlinkages.
Most of the contributions are case studies written by academies from various backgrounds. The
authors include gender and environmental specialists and others explicitly concerned with land
right issues. Only a few of them had combined all three aspects of the topic in their former work;
the seminar and this book paved the way for other interprétations of their material, and the result
underlines the necessity of a thorough understanding of gender relations for any analysis of land
use and environmental problems.
The material in this book might be viewed as somewhat of a novelty in the Dutch academie
2 de Bruijn, van Halsema, van den Hombergh Introductioi tradition. In the Netherlands, women's studies and environmental studies have been two different
fields of specialization for several decades They are research domains in their own right, each comprising a broad range of topics considered 'relevant for development', and each instrumentalized to a certain extent to examine the effects of change processes on women and natural resources, and to help find ways to combat poverty, injustice, and environmental dégradation. In this, each of them has to come to terms with norms and values that may be different in the academie culture of the researcher than in that of the research subjects. Environmental studies and women's studies can learn a lot from each other in the contributions they can make to the understanding and transformation of development processes. More than has been the case until now.
On the Dutch academie scène it still seems very difficult to convince environmental scientists of the necessity of incorporating gender as a relevant dimension of différence in their analyses (see e.g. van den Breemer et al. 1995). Sometimes perhaps because women seem to be invisible actors in the decision-making on natural resource management in their research areas. Sometimes perhaps because they are neither willing nor able to start from real-life problems of any social category whatsoever (Douma, van den Hombergh, Wieberdink 1994). And in gender studies, the interest in ecological problems often does not move beyond a général récognition of their importance, and there is Sometimes even some hostility towards the topic because of the legitimate reluctance to emphasize the woman/nature relationship.2
Dutch contributions towards understanding the interfaces between environmental and gender-related social problems have come from different fields. The book written by Dankelman and her British colleague Davidson in 1988, which urges development institutions to recognize women's crucial rôles in environmental management, their difficulties and initiatives, is well-known and influential. Efforts to start from real-life problems are encouraging researchere in the agricultural, géographie, social and environmental sciences to start bridging the gaps between the academie fields, for example by studying women's limited access to land and other resources. A number of books have been written by academies based in the Netherlands, and each in their own way they provide an overview of the international literature, approaches and theoretical debates (Braidotti et al. 1994, van den Hombergh 1993). Dutch interuniversity coopération on the issue has led to an international Roundtable on "Women, Environment and Alternatives to Development"3 held in the Hague in May 1993. The conference featured international contributions geared towards the formulation of research, policy and activist agendas (Harcourt 1994).
2. There has been quite some controversy around the -biologistic-assertion to be found in some streams of 'ecofeminism', and development literature, that women would be better caretakers of the environment based on their close (physical, spiritual) relationship with nature. As many others we think that this assumption can be contraproductive.
3. organized by the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Utrecht University, and the Institute for Development Research of the University of Amsterdam (InDRA) in coopération with the Society for International Development (Harcourt et al 1993, Harcourt 1994).
Growing Attention
Since the mid-eighties, there has internationally been growing attention for women's rôles environmental management. This debate was inspired by studies like those by Boserup (197 Agarwal (1986, 1989), Cecelski (1987), Dankelman and Davidson (1988), publications such Shiva's (1989) and compilations of numerous NGO field expériences that highligthed the rok women in agriculture, energy, forestry and water resources. In the documents produced at UNCï the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, women were d mentioned, which can largely be attributed to an intensive préparation process and a strong lol: (BothENDS 1992, Hausier 1993).
In the international debates on women, the environment and sustainable development, the isi is often dealt with in a very abstract, often generalizing marmer, for instance by critics of the se) and anti-nature assumptions of modern science, technology and économies (e.g. Harcourt ed. 19 Shiva 1989), in pursuit of feminist alternatives to the models. In philosophy, 'ecofeminism', controversial stream of thought which has many different approaches in itself, has drawn para!) between the suppression of nature and of women in modern Western thinking (e.g. Warren 19 King 1990, Mies and Shiva 1993), They stress the need to incorporate an ecological perspect in feminism and a feminist perspective in ecology. Efforts have been undertaken to comb different approaches, such as ecofeminism, deep ecology, etc. into a new and all-embrac theoretical synthesis (e.g. Braidotti et al. 1994).
Thus quite a bit of work has been conducted on the philosophical, more genera! theorizing ab women/gender and the environment. The debates have been inspired by grass-roots experienc and sometimes seem to have moved far beyond them. Problems have been encountered when th more abstract and philosophical ideas are confronted with the everyday realities women and n participate in and which are characterized by so much diversity. It is to the challenge of mak these linkages and showing the complexities of concrete situations that this volume is commit!
Images of Women and the Environment
In specialized, often policy-oriented literature on women and the environment, a number unifying labels for poor women in the South in their rôle with the natural environment have pro to be very attractive (van den Hombergh 1993). Some examples.
4 de Bniijn, van Halsema, van den Hombergh
thé majority of the poorest segment of the population (Agarwal 1986, Dankelman and Davidson 1988). Because of their tasks and responsibilities, women are often thé main experts and educators as concerns environmental knowledge and skills based on their close interaction with thé natural resources (Shiva 1989, Rodda 1991). Related to this, women in Southern countries are sometimes called day-to-day environmental managers (Dankelman and Davidson 1988, Khasiani 1992), barefoot ecologists (e.g. Davidson 1990) whose work is donc in harmony with nature (Shiva 1989). In thé developmentalist literature, they are either called beneficiaries or, worse, instruments of environmental projects (Russo et al 1989, Clones 1991). This is because of their presumed interests and skills. Expressions such as "women are instrumental for project success" are used to convince gender-blind policy makers of the need to dedicate more time and money to women. Last but not least, they are labeled change agents who, with their different views from thé margins, can design other, better, more ecologically sound ways of living (e.g. Rodda 1991).
Some labels glorify women's potential, others are more or less humiliating. Thèse images were often derived from actual expérience, and may be true for many circumstances or even indicative of a trend. Also, they have proven able to draw attention to women (for example during UNCED4), but cannot be used as a universal truth. In any case, they only tell us part of the truth, because thèse labels are simplifications which do not reflect the complex reality in which people interact with the environment to organize their lives. The labels or images mentioned before may be dangerous simplifications out of context, and often do not reckon with gender in ail its aspects and in relation to other structurizing principles such as class, ethnicity and âge (see criticism in e.g. Sethi 1989, Leach et al. 1995, Jackson 1993).
Gender, Land Use and Environmental Management
The starting point in this book is therefore that thé connection between gender, land use and thé environment is not always that simple, obvious and direct. However, there is always some connection between thé problems of gender and natural resources. Resource access and control are usually différent for men and women, and are regulated through complex procedures. Ownership and user rights often do not coincide. What thé différent gender arrangements of access and control mean for thé management of resources is a central question hère. Moreover, thé arrangements s regulating resource use and management are never static and socio-économie restructuring will | j ^have an impact on thé gendered^djyision of resource access_and control. It islàlsô important to i | conceiveTSf thé relation_.beiween gender relations and environmental change as a two-way^ one.^As j LljadTêTaL (1995:5) state,^Genderjelations have a pqwerful influence on how environments jure | used and managed and hence on gatterns of «cological change over time. Yet environmental trends
4. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Introduction
and shocks also impact on gender relations, whether directly - for example as ecologie -?, '• ' '^~ dégradation alters the gender distribution of resources, or encourages particular coping'strategie or indirectly, in the pdfitical and ideological use of environmental issues to uphold orcBatfën particular relations or forms of subordination."
Areas that seem crucial to any considération of gender, land use and environmental managemei include: first, gender différences in tasks and responsibilities, for example in the provision ai cultivation of food; second, gender différences in resource access and control, control ov production, and access to crédit, éducation, and information, how access and control are médiat by kinship and marriage, as well as by State versus customary law; third, gender différences knowledge and skills, for example in thé use of plants, management of the land, spaces and cro or animais that may be gender spécifie; fourth, gender différences in perceptions and identiti related to natural resources; including taboos, thé attribution of religieus meaning (for examp sacred forests); fïfth, différences among women, such as âge, class, ethnicity; and, sixl institutional settings of household, marriage, community and broader geographical setting including how environmental décision making in institutions is gendered.
Thus gender, land use and environmental management intersect in a complex setting in whii culture, économies and politics interfère. This volume aims to help unravel thèse complexities
Analyzing Trends and Diversity: Contributions to this Book
The authors were asked to dévote spécial attention to cultural diversity, and thé effects of chan; processes on coping stratégies. Coping stratégies, thé interaction of people with their environmei cannot be understood without considering thé influence of normative frameworks which chani over time and place. The différences between men and women are defined in this framework, ai often translated into power relations. This is explicit in resource access and control. In Duti development studies, attention is devoted to thé complexity of tenure, as is reflected in this volum Some contributions discuss thé possibility of including gender in policy discussions.
The articles in this book show that gender and thé use and management of resources are linki through cultural définitions of gender and natural resources, as is often expressed in thé cosmolo; and symbolism of a culture. This is clearly highlighted in thé cases of French Guyana (Jara Reinders) and Mexico (Govers). Despite important changes in a Mexican village, related processes of globalization, thé gender division of labour - related to thé use of natural resource! does not seem to change. The case of French Guyana shows how thèse culturally defined gend divisions of labour may lead to (further) unbalanced power relations in a situation of econom change. The power dimensions of gender are also illustrated in thé articles dealing with land righ and thé involvement of law. It is clear that gender catégories may often be misinterpreted, or ev< excluded from thé national and international debates (Simbolon, van den Berg).
6 de Bruijn, van Halsema, van den Hombergh
for other issues, and should be addressed again in relation to the use of natural resources. Other différences should be taken into considération, e.g. the composition of households, as is very explicitly discussed in the case of Kenya (Mutoro), and the way a person is embedded in society, related to kinship organization, as is very clear in some African societies (Zuiderwijk & Schaafsma), an-' differentiation along other catégories, such as âge (van den Berg).
Relations between people and the environment are also linked to different normative frameworks, whether customary, national, regional, or religious, which are covered by the term legal pluralism. Définitions of gender and the rights of men and women as laid down in customary law are part of this legal pluralism. The case of Indonesia described by Simbolon clearly illustrâtes the complexity of legal pluralism and its conséquences for women's involvement in labour and land issues.
A complicating factor in the understanding of environmental management is, of course, the variety of resources that people use, ranging from land to forests to rivers. The rights to these different resources are all defined according to different rules and have different implications for gender relations (van Est).
Almost all the contributions in this book refer to changing circumstances: changes in the cultural, societal and technological setting. In Northern Cameroon, it is the migration of men that results in women facing environmental management problems (Zuiderwijk & Schaafsma). All the African cases refer to dégradation and désertification as important catalysts of change in the interaction between people and their environment. The growing scarcity of resources leads to enormous problems that have repercussions on gender relations with respect to the division of labour and access to natural resources (van Est, van den Berg).
All these issues have a clear relevance for policy-making. There is a controversy with respect to the danger or the utility of the images dealt with above. Skutch & Nordholt argue that there has been a much too narrow understanding of women's energy priorities, almost entirely focused on improved stoves and tree planting. They suggest that despite the many pitfalls, 'hijacking' the cultural norm of women as caretakers serves to convince policy-makers of the need to incorporate more women in decision-making processes on energy policy in général. Resurreccion-Sayo, however, attacks the uncritical universalization of women as caretakers and victims, arguing that the local history of human and natural processes should be studied in detail, using examples from the Philippines to show how different the effects of these processes can be. Van Est critically reviews the images of women as primary victims or the best managers of the environment based on her research on the use and management of the Logone floodplain by Mousgoum men and women in Cameroon. Might it be that doing less harm to the environment is just a result of only 1 having access to poor techniques?
Hesseling élaborâtes on how to involve women in environmental contracts in the Sahel. These contracts have mainly been male-biased so far, and it still remains to be seen which kind of contracts could fit women's goals under different circumstances. This is related to the actual problem of giving women secure access to land, giving them land rights on their own behalf.
Mutoro describes how in Kenya, land reform, meant to stimulate capitalist pro' sévère fragmentation of the land, has been detrimental to women's leeway as issue of improving the situation for women has only gained the policy makers' HpsëP
not only results in a worsening situation for women, but also in a worsening agricultûrl? production. Land rights hère prove to be crucial.
Another point that is made by Simbolon is that because of all the différent levels on which rights are formulated land rights are not defined in a simple way. This make the idea of 'giving land rights' very complicated. Although having land rights of their own would indeed help women provide their families with a living on a more secure basis, van den Berg wonders whether this would also lead to 'better' management and sustainable development of natural resources. The article by van Est also raises this question. Their papers take a step toward refuting the assumption that women are better managers of resources than men per se.
However, the question of good and bad should not become the major aim of environmental research. In policy as well as applied research, the concept of sustainable management has become central. Although sustainable management is a useful concept in efforts to halt environmental dégradation and destruction, the term raises problems. Sustainability may mean different things to different people (think of agriculturalists and pastoralists for example), as does the final aim of management. We are inevitably moving from technological to political questions. At the basis of the issues discussed here is how we perceive the interaction of people with their natural environment. As was stated above, we have to move beyond the simplified pictures of people, be it women or men as caretakers or destroyers of the natural resources. As researchere, writing ethnography, we can contribute to an understanding of how interaction processes take place, instead of taking an a priori stand that behaviour should be controlled for the sake of the environment, or have an a priori perception of women as either victimized or instrumental in environmental change processes.
In the recent state of the debate, in the Netherlands and internationally, the challenge is to integrale gender concerns into land use and environmental studies, and vice versa, without falling into the trap of stereotypes. Instead the issue should be approached with an open eye to trends in diversity and diversity in trends, in order to arrive at more elaborate understandings and undertakings.
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