Gender and Indigenous Concepts of Climate Protection: A Critical Revision of REDD+ Projects.

Citation:

Löw, Christine. 2020. “Gender and Indigenous Concepts of Climate Protection: A Critical Revision of REDD+ Projects.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 43 (April): 91–8.

Author: Christine Löw

Abstract:

Gender inequality and discrimination challenge the most important international climate regime mechanism on forests REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) in achieving sustainable development and protecting forests. The backgrounding of a gender-specific perspective in REDD+ research is often justified from the premise that forests are an inherently male business and REDD+ is only a technical issue. Although millions of women, predominantly indigenous women, are involved in forest work and forestry their importance for natural resource management has been systematically devalued and invisibilized. This paper reviews the gender literature on climate change and REDD+-projects to elaborate on gender-specific subordination of women, with a closer attention to indigenous women, which hinder effective forest protection, fair resource allocation, gender equality and social justice. The paper integrates an autonomous model for climate change adaption lead by indigenous women, that documents not only the local climatic effects on agriculture and forests but develops responses beyond the top downmodel of REDD+. Through relying on knowledge from decades about territories, seasons, trees and cultural life systems indigenous women together with youth and community members were able to sustain food sovereignty in the context of climate change – and the broader goal of people led sustainable development.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Security, Food Security

Year: 2020