The Role of Women in Environmental Conservation: Empowerment, Rights, and Sustainable Development
Karma Norbu Bhutia
Abstract
The world’s population has been continuously on the rise which is putting a severe strain on our environment and its already limited natural resources to add to this problem our technological advancements is proving to be a bane for our environment, with the advancement of technology our human greed for economic growth has increased manifold which has led to overexploitation of the natural resources leading to severe environmental degradation, as Gandhi once said “There is enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed”. The need of the hour right now is to conserve the remaining natural resources and try and restore those which have already been degraded. Women can play a very vital role towards achieving the goal of environmental conservation. Women since time immemorial have played a very essential role towards management of natural resources on family and at a community level. Women are often deeply dependent on available resources for food, fuel and shelter hence they can be vulnerable to environmental change and threats. Women have played a key role in many watershed movements related to environmental protection be it at a grass root level like the Chipko movement in the 1970’s or a high level movement like the Green belt movement which originated in Kenya on the Earth day in 1977 all this movement highlights the role of women towards sustainable development. However despite playing such an important role towards environmental conservation they are often ignored while framing important environmental related laws, the inheritance laws and local customs prevent them from having an ownership rights of the lands which mostly lies with the males. Women in many countries especially developing ones are actively involved in management of small-scale agriculture, they are not given an equal role when it comes to decision-making related to land use, nor are they given an equal access to much needed resources. Therefore, conservation of natural resources and promotion of environment cannot be done without involving the women in every phase of planning.
Keywords: Women, Law, Environment, Conservation, Natural resources, Gender inequality
