Yvone Underhill-Sem on Feminist Political Ecology: Linking the Local to the Global
Yvonne Underhill-Sem, a feminist geographer of Cook Island/New Zealand heritage, is a professor of gender and development at the University of Auckland, and the regional coordinator for Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) in the Pacific. Online, she shared with Isis International-Manila her thoughts on Feminist Political Ecology, the very theme of this WIA issue. Yvonne gladly examined the feminist political ecology framework, tracing its development, and looking at its strengths and challenges. 
WIA: Feminist political ecology is a relatively new and currently evolving framework. Could you trace its beginnings?
Yvonne Underhill-Sem [Yvonne]: Within geography, feminist political ecology became a recognisable area of study with the publication of the geographer Diane Rocheleau’s edited book in 1997 entitled, Feminist Political Ecology: Global Perspectives and Local Experience (by D. E. Rocheleau, B. Thomas-Slayter and E. Wangari). Over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of political ecology studies focusing mostly on the developing world but although there has been a growing recognition that the themes of political ecology are applicable to First World situations as well advancing the specificities of a “Feminist” political ecology remains wanting.
A range of related theoretical approaches—including Marxism, dependency theory and world systems theory—have shaped political ecology studies. Perhaps not surprisingly, given this intellectual heritage, the feminist politics of this research agenda has been less evident. The reasons for this are many and varied but possibly pertain to the difficulties facing feminist scholarship in debates over disembodied human-environment studies. In these studies, the focus is more often on the relationships between already constituted subjects, who by default are gendered male. A revised feminist political ecology needs to begin more explicitly by focusing on the body because from here, the gendered effects of ecological process can be most clearly identified.
This disembodied movement was happening at the same time that ecofeminism was unproblematically embraced as a way of bringing women in. However, ecofeminists’ arguments served to effectively keep women at some acceptable analytical distance from mainsteam political ecology studies because they disallowed the far more diverse sets of social and ecological arrangements that constitute human-nonhuman relations.
My sense is that this essentialist approach is changing with the ecological component being more closely configured in otherwise more politically nuanced political ecology studies. Further, more theoretically complex analysis has expanded political ecology studies into first world studies that, possibly inadvertently, provides for more nuanced feminist engagements.
WIA: What are the implications of feminist political ecology on other discourses surrounding feminism and political ecology, for example, ecofeminism?
Yvonne: Ecofeminism has many adherents, but mostly more for its uncritical acceptance of some sort of homogenous woman. As mentioned above, this is an untenable argument. Concepts of diversity and essentialism are of cross purposes in feminist political ecology but inclusivity of the concept of diversity provides a more potent political analysis.
Ecofeminism
The social ideology that regards the oppression of women and nature as interconnected. It explores the commonalities between gender oppression and environmental degradation, which are mainly caused by male Western dominance.
Source: www.ecofem,org
WIA: Who are the feminists, actors or organisations that are in the forefront of the feminist political ecology framework?
Yvonne: In the academic field of geography, Diane Rocheleau’s work provides the most obvious starting point for critical analysis. Wendy Harcourt and Arturo Escobar’s edited book, Women and the Politics of Place, also provides insights into a revised feminist political ecology by framing debates as “women and the politics of place.” While politically nuanced, the “ecological” angle is getting greater attention from other scholar activists such as Marsha Darling.
Organisations that are at the forefront of this framework are sure to include
an array of local and probably mostly undocumented movements operating in defense of their access to local resources necessary for continued livelihoods. This may not involve high profile challenges and movements like the Green Belt Movement, but many women collectively resist in defense of the resources that underpin their livelihoods. While their activities may not span the range of geographic scales usually associated with political ecology studies, their activities constitute a feminist political ecology because the link between local ecological process are clearly connected to the political practices of access to and use of resources. Such local action and their associated meanings are often invisible yet my experience in the Pacific is that such actions are ubiquitous.
Green Belt Movement
The Green Belt Movement is one of the most prominent women’s civil society organisations, based in Kenya, advocating for human rights and supporting good governance and peaceful democratic change through the protection of the environment and to promote good governance and culture of peace.
Source: http://greenbelt.org WIA: How do women mobilise and strategise using the feminist political ecology framework in addressing specific concerns, e.g., agriculture, mining, land rights, etc.?
Yvonne: I suggest that women on the ground rarely use an explicit political ecology framework as mapped out by activist academics. Rather, the latter are learning from actions on the ground to inform and influence political actions at national and international arenas. A huge challenge is to resist the tendency to suppress the gendered nature of an explicit feminist engagement that routinely happens as women underplay their own needs for the sake of the “common good.”
WIA: Using the framework, how could the feminist movements strengthen their advocacy towards gender, development and the environment, at the local, national, regional and international levels?
Yvonne: A key feature of political ecology is the integration of scales of analysis from the local to the internal regional, national, regional and international. By systematically mapping out the policy connections at these various geographical scales, and taking into account the various embodied practices upon which policies and regulations act, feminist advocacy would be strengthened.
WIA: What tools does the feminist political ecology framework bring to social movements involved in feminism?
Yvonne: The systematic nature of the connections between various geographically nested political scales of action and reaction, connections that are attentive to embodied practices in accessing and using local resources.
WIA: What are the current trends or issues on gender, development, and the environment that we should keep an eye on?
Yvonne: There are many. Some are conceptual, as in the analysis of the science and cultures of understanding the political use of the environment; discussions over vulnerability in disaster management; and the notion of “precautionary principle.” Others are more substantial, and cannot be overlooked for their continued effects such as nuclear contamination, the loss of biodiversity and effects of pesticides. Still, others are more immediately observable such as access to potable water, waste disposal and food security.
Although a relatively new and currently evolving framework, the Feminist Political Ecology lens proved to be useful as it equips feminists and environmentalists with an interdisciplinary approach for understanding the importance of gender, race, culture, ethnicity and class in looking at issues of resource management and sustainable development. This framework pose further benefits to women from the developing South as it allows them to interrogate and critique current and proposed neoliberal policies.
EdiToriAl
“Feminist Political Ecology,”—the theme of this issue of Women in Action (WIA)—was inspired by a seminar- workshop of the same title held on May 11, 2007 at Miriam College, Philippines. This seminar, a collaboration among Isis International-Manila, the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era–Southeast Asia (DAWN-SEA), and the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center–Kasama sa Kalikasan or Friends of the Earth (LRC-KSK), featured as resource person leading feminist political ecologist Anita Nayar of DAWN and gathered together environmentalists, social movement activists, and academics.
In that workshop, Anita Nayar introduced “feminist political ecology” as an evolving framework distinct from the framework of the more mainstream and reactionary “ecological feminism.” Nayar invited the workshop participants to enrich the framework with their diverse views from various vantage points, and the workshop discussions that ensued generated a conception of a feminist political ecology that is focused on and is constituted by three areas or domains: [1] gendered knowledge; [2] gendered environmental rights and responsibilities; and [3] gendered environmental politics and grassroots activism. One will find that the articles in this volume of WIA are oriented towards analyses within or among these three domains.
We are honoured to have LRC-KSK Executive Director Jocelyn ‘Jo’ Villanueva as guest editor of this WIA issue. Her knowledge and experience of working directly with communities provided the necessary intervention in the framing of this WIA issue’s various articles from diverse cultures and communities across the Asia and Pacific regions.
We hope that this issue reminds us of the need to strengthen our concern for political ecological issues in our activism and sharpen our feminist perspectives and theorising in our analysis of gender and the environment.
Raijeli Nicole
Editor-in-Chief
A Note from the Guest Editor
In many countries of the developing South, various forms of conflicts exist in relation to access and control of land and other resources. Conflicts involving poor communities against state-backed development projects or against resource extractive industries, such as mining, forest plantations, logging, and large-scale dams, often result to people’s landlessness, displacement, and impoverishment. More often than not, this disenfranchisement impacts more tremendously on women because of deeply entrenched cultural practices that systematically discriminates women, because of laws and state regulatory frameworks that recognise neither women’s property rights nor their right to participate in official policy forums, and because of the lack of understanding of women’s role in the family, community, and the larger society.
This special issue of Women in Action (WIA) on “Feminist Political Ecology” bravely explores the various facets of ecological issues confronting women and men in resource-rich countries of the South. By interrogating the political terrain that informs specific environmental concerns, this WIA issue makes apparent the inextricable linkages between the environment and issues of class, caste, ethnicity, and most importantly, gender. Indeed, the various articles and essays in this issue show that the intersection of issues of land, natural resources, and the environment is an important vantage point for examining the gendered impacts of contending political, social, economic, and cultural forces unfolding at the local, national, and global levels.
While conceptual frameworks for Feminist Political Ecology emerged in late 1990s and have been mainly used for academic researches, they are at present being rediscovered as potentially powerful analytical tools for understanding and grappling with the multi-dimensional complexity of the environment, development, and gender interface. Thus, this WIA issue also hopes to invite greater engagement from women in feminist organisations, and women and men in mixed organisations in exploring feminist political ecology as an analytical frame our development work.
Congratulations to Isis International-Manila for this special issue of WIA and I consider it a great privilege and a meaningful experience to be part of this publication.
Jo M. Villanueva
Guest Editor 3
Shifting Feminisms: From Inter-sectionality to Political Ecology
I thought ecology was about the ecosystem!
Political ecology” is a new term that encapsulates a range of concerns regarding the environment and the impacts of changing environments on people’s lives and livelihoods. It provides for an inter-disciplinary framework for looking at these impacts, and places unequal power relations on the basis of sex, age, class, education, political
representation and so on at the centre of the debate. A feminist perspective on political ecology looks not only at the unequal relations between men and women but also at the ways in which diverse understandings of masculinity and femininity shape people’s control over such basic necessities such as food and water, forests and land. While one may wonder why such a new term becomes necessary when concepts such as “inter-sectionality” have been developed over the past years, let’s not get bogged down by semantics but rather explore the nuances of “political ecology.”
Feminist political ecology: its strengths as an analytical framework Within a traditional “women and development” framework, we looked at ecological/environmental issues from the perspective of our physical and material environment. Inter-sectionality
An inter-sectional approach to analysing the disempowerment of marginalised women attempts to capture the consequences of the interaction between two or more forms of subordination. It addresses the manner in which racism, patriarchy, class oppression and other discriminatory systems create inequalities that structure the relative positions of women, races, ethnicities, classes, and the like. Moreover, inter-sectionality addresses the way that specific acts and policies operate together to create further disempowerment.
Source: www.cwgl.rutgers.edu
Thus, we examined the ways in which women and men perceive their relationship to land and water differently and sometimes we would essentialise the links between women and land on the basis that both land and women possess the power of reproduction. Talking about water management, for example, we would say that since women are the ones who must walk long distances to fetch water, they should be the ones to decide where the village wells are to be built. We would also encourage women to use their waste water from cooking and washing to water a home garden in which they could produce vegetables and fruits for their family, thus also providing valuable nutritional supplements.
We supported women to become “small” farmers and “small” entrepreneurs, to work with “micro”-credit. These were all part of our strategies for women to play a more central role in the sustainable development of their families, their communities and their societies in the 1970s and 1980s. Why then were we willing to be so “small” and “micro?” Was the dogma of “Small is Beautiful” so powerful? Or did we get caught up in something that was “bigger” than us, without realising it? How did we understand the concept of equality? Somewhere buried inside these questions lies our unease in addressing cultural and social practices, issues of unequal gender relations within the family and in the world.
Political Ecology
An interdisciplinary, non-dualistic strategy that seeks to describe the dynamic ways in which, on the one hand, political and economic power can shape ecological futures and, on the other, how ecologies can shape political and economic possibilities.
Source: http://ceep.udel.edu/politicalecology /index.htmlFrom the perspective of political ecology, then, we look at a range of experiences of life and living, and at the various factors that shape and influence them. We look not only at the biological and environmental factors but also at the social, economic and political factors that all together create the environment in which we live and work.
Learnings and challenges
In the years since the 1980s, through the experiences of millions of women all over the world, we have learned that most of our attempts to conserve energy, to save water, to preserve the rainforests, to develop alternative forms of energy, and to protect our gene pools have not been very successful. The economic imperatives of global markets and the expansion of neo-imperialist political agendas have created havoc in nature and destroyed millions of lives through wars and natural disasters.
From the perspective of political ecology, then, we look at a range of experiences of life and living, and at the various factors that shape and influence them. We look not only at the biological and environmental factors but also at the social, economic and political factors that all together create the environment in which we live and work.
On reflection, as feminists, we see that many of the strategies and tactics we used in the 1980s were more suited to containing women within the framework of patriarchal control and domination. The processes through which many women were incorporated into local economies were limiting; their workload increased, with no guarantees that they could control the incomes they earned. In some cases, in fact, research has shown that some women became more vulnerable to abuse and violence when they did become income-earners.
The processes through which we incorporated women into political structures were equally limiting; their capacity to influence decision making was often relegated to the “soft” issues such as social welfare, while “hard” areas of decision making such as economics, politics and foreign policy remained the terrain of men. Situations of violence and discrimination were not eliminated from the lives of women or from the psyches of the community. In many parts of the world, fathers, brothers and even other male relatives continued to believe that they could control the mobility and freedom of their womenfolk through violent means. Arguments based on tradition, culture and customary practices continued to be used to discriminate against women and girls.
Today, we have moved into the 21st century with a much better understanding of the social phenomena that enable patriarchies to shift and change with time, and remain constant in our lives. The often forced integration of southern economies into global markets has resulted in the continued exploitation of cheap labour, especially women’s labour, and has continued to locate the majority of women workers in sectors in which their traditional roles as needlewomen, small-scale agriculturists, caretakers and providers of sexual services are reaffirmed.
The increased fragmentation of workers’ solidarity and the rapid expansion of the so-called informal sector have had the most devastating impact on women since they are mostly working in this unorganised and unprotected sector. In the rural sector, destructive processes of mining, cash crop farming and concentration of land and other natural resources in the hands of a few have led to the eviction of rural and indigenous populations, and resulted in acts of hostility against the land and against peoples. Indeed, the private armies of rich landowners—individuals and companies—are returning us to the medieval times of serfdom and servitude.
Currently, we also see the emergence of new political ecologies, in which new tensions arise...The shifts in power relations open up new spaces for resistance and action for all kinds of marginalised communities and individuals...
Globalisation has also led to the intense fragmentation of societies and communities. Militarisation and the use of force to impose means of domination at all levels of society generate ever more barbaric forms of violence, and the use of tradition and culture to justify discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, caste, ethnicity and race, for example, perpetuate social divisions that have complex consequences. All forms of religious fundamentalisms and extremisms flourish in this environment, and the murder of women can be publicly acknowledged as being about a family’s “honour”. Where the “honour” in killing women lies, is a question that feminists consistently raise.
Critical issues and advocacies for feminist activism
Currently, we also see the emergence of new political ecologies, in which new tensions arise. This is the era in which the “small farm” becomes obsolete, the “small fisherman” gets thrown back on to the shore and the small states face a future in which they are only as good as the strength of their alliances with “big” (read economically and politically powerful) states. The shifts in power relations open up new spaces for resistance and action for all kinds of marginalised communities and individuals, such as women, the indigenous, people living with HIV/ AIDS, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans-sexual people, for example.
The feminist perspective on modern political ecolog y takes into consideration the changing patterns of the labour force, which are undoubtedly exploitative and heighten women’s vulnerability to violence. The return of the sweatshop in new forms such as global call centres and the home-based production of consumer goods such as clothes, jackets and shoes all depend almost solely on cheap female labour.
Migrant work opportunities, especially as domestic labour, have opened up for millions of poor women. Despite the potential of violence and exploitation, these jobs offer many women an opportunity to engage, in whatever miniscule manner, with life outside the home and the family; they also provide an income with which some women at least can re-negotiate their position within the family. At the same time, different forms of the family emerge as more women are drawn into the labour force, as same-sex families adopt children and as more single parent families become the norm.
The feminist perspective on modern political ecology takes into consideration the changing patterns of the labour force, which are undoubtedly exploitative and heighten women’s vulnerability to violence.
The 21st century also brings the expansion of new reproductive technologies that contain within them the seeds of the separation of biological reproduction from women’s bodies. This scientific advancement has the potential to effect a radical transformation in people’s lives by allowing the exploration of sexual pleasure in all its many manifestations, and by offering a challenge to the stigma of infertility. Yet along with this promise of freedom and choice comes the dangers of the instrumentalisation of women’s bodies and reproductive capacities. The development of “genetic engineering” models of technology also bring back memories of the eugenics of the 1930s when scientists sought to eliminate “flaws” from the human gene pool and create “supermen” and “superwomen.” The call of feminists and women’s rights defenders around the world for the right to choose and the right to control one’s fertility flies in the face of corporate attempts to manipulate and “engineer” our bodies and their reproductive potential.
In the political arena, more and more feminist activists move away from quantitative solutions to the issue women’s absence from traditional institutions of political power at the national level, and seek instead to achieve substantive and qualitative participation of women, and of other marginalised communities. Combating the fragmentation of social movements and the depoliticisation of collective politics, diverse actors are reviving old forms of transnational organisation and mobilisation, and creating new ones. Feminists are key players in this process.
As much as globalisation is about the domination of the “market” imperative, markets and the political power of the empire, it is also about shifting power relations and about the transformation of unequal relationships. The concept of inter-sectionality that feminists developed to better understand the multiple layers of discrimination and oppression that are experienced by women all over the world, is critical to the framework of political ecolog y. Inter-sectionality interrogates the many different dimensions of women’s oppression and looks at them from the diverse lenses that shape the world a woman inhabits. The framework of political ecology helps us to locate this inter-sectionality within the material world as well as within the metaphysical one.
In the Aftermath of the Tsunami Disaster: Gender Identities in Sri Lanka1
Some groups are more vulnerable than others. Vulnerability is not just poverty, but the poor tend to be most vulnerable due to their lack of choices. The influences of both poverty and development processes on peoples’ vulnerability to disasters are now well-established, significantly affected by class, caste, ethnicity, gender, disability and age.
Women, especially if they do not receive timely warnings, or other information about hazards and risks, or if their mobility is restricted, or otherwise affected by cultural and social constraints, are major casualties in disasters. Gender-biases and stereotypes can complicate and prolong women’s recovery, such as when women do not seek or receive timely care for physical and mental trauma.2
Introduction
How are the social, economic and cultural notions of women and men perceived within institutions such as the state, the family and communities? What impact do such perceptions have to access to resources and knowledge and on the freedom of mobility in Sri Lanka? Socio-economic, political and cultural notions of gender relations more often than not, demarcate lines of conduct, understandings of duties and obligations, and the strategising for household survival.
This paper examines the impact of notions of gender roles on people’s survival when the tsunami occurred in Sri Lanka. It looks at gender in two principal dimensions: firstly, the way gender figured significantly during the actual disaster and in the immediate aftermath of rescue and relief activity, and secondly, the incorporation of gender in the policy and programme responses.
The disaster which struck almost two thirds of the coast line of Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004, resulted not only in thousands of lives lost and trauma for the survivors, but also the destruction of homes and infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The tsunami killed 35,322 people and displaced close to a million, and affected almost two-thirds of the country’s coastal areas. 3 The word “tsunami” which, until then, had been vaguely associated by Sri Lankans with sea phenomena occurring in distant countries, is now very much a part of Sri Lankan vocabulary whether it is Sinhala or Tamil.
More than two years later, the memory of the sea’s fury, the indiscriminate destruction of homes and livelihoods, and the terrifying loss of loved ones, friends and neighbours remain, especially among those who continue to live in the tsunami-stricken areas.
A significant number of victims were from low-income groups whose destroyed homes were made of low quality material and whose livelihoods were closely linked to raw materials available in coastal areas. 4 With hindsight, we now know the repercussions of being an island nation with little or no preparations to handle such a catastrophe. There are now attempts to address these issues, to put in place early warning systems.
Much of the land hit by the tsunami has also been subjected to an ethnic conflict since the early 1980s. This conflict has led to periodic displacements of a huge number of families. It has also destroyed and seriously weakened the delivery of services in health, education, and shelter, even prior to the tsunami. 5 In the last 18 months, the resurgence of military confrontations between the Sri Lankan Government armed forces and those of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the virtual breakdown of the Cease Fire Agreement of 2003 between these two parties, have resulted in large numbers being displaced (although many had already undergone displacement during earlier such confrontations). An alarming pattern of abductions and disappearances in the north east and the south of the country has also emerged.
Where the international development discourse has adopted the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) as a framework to strengthen commitments to gender equality, the tsunami’s aftermath continues to pose serious questions as to which, and to what extent, existing political, economic and social structures recognise and respond effectively to the gender dimensions of disasters.
The inequalities between women and men in accessing resources, skills, and social status was outlined more than two decades ago through the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).6 In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) provided a framework in which government policies may ensure the protection and promotion of gender responsive plans of action.7 Bringing together these Conventions and the BPFA and creating an international lobby for integrating gender into disaster responses, the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch successfully advocated with the UN for this purpose. These resulted in the adoption in 2006 of a new Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Resolution on “Integrating Gender Perspective in Post-Disaster Relief, especially in response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami.”8
The tsunami brought into sharp focus the gendered nature of the disaster’s impact. More women than men lost their lives on that single day of December 26, 2004.
Sri Lanka, like many other nations, has ratified the CEDAW Convention and accepted the BPFA and the MDGs as well as the outcomes of all UN Conferences which have gender as a focal area of concern. These frameworks acknowledge that to eradicate poverty, women’s limited access to productive resources and assets when compared with men need to be critically recognised. They also accept that social, cultural and economic factors mitigate against women having the same access and rights as men to obtain equal wages, to learn life skills, to livelihoods and markets and that women are also more vulnerable to violence, both societal and domestic. 9 However, the lack of mechanisms that would respond to such phenomena was underscored by the slow response of the Sri Lankan State in the aftermath of the tsunami, and the failure to recognise the implications of existing gender gaps.
Gender Aspects of the Tsunami
The tsunami brought into sharp focus the gendered nature of the disaster’s impact. More women than men lost their lives on that single day of December 26, 2004. A sample survey carried out by women’s groups working in the tsunami-affected areas showed that in some districts most of the victims were children and women.10
The tsunami has also brought about a new phenomenon of households where thousands of widowers now have to look after their children without their mothers. In parts of the east, there are reports that this has often resulted in remarriages and the prospective ill treatment of these children by their father’s new wives.11 Among the hundreds of orphans, often female, young and unmarried, many still face social norms which constrain young women’s mobility, suppress their voices and human rights.
Gender Responsive Security Measures
Fortunately, the early calls by women’s groups for gender responsive security measures in welfare camps and temporary shelters, although initially rejected, resulted in some changes in camp facilities which accommodated these concerns.12
Some surveys conducted over the past two years have brought to light increasing domestic violence as a critical negative impact of people’s displacement.13 Causes include, among others, men’s use of relief monies for personal rather than household needs; the pervasive notion of the male as head of household, which is based on the assumption that it is men who provide for the family. The latter has meant that women are not given monetary handouts and have to face the consequences of alcohol abuse by their spouses; these husbands leave little money for the purchase of food for the family. Other factors cited are mental trauma resulting from the aftermath of the tsunami, and the unemployment and insecurity experienced by men as familiar gender roles are undermined.
In 2005, the Government legislated against domestic violence with the adoption by Parliament of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act. While this Act was the direct outcome of almost seven years of lobbying by women’s groups, there is a need even today for an extended campaign to make the public as well as the judiciary aware of the redress that can be obtained in the wake of domestic violence.
State and Donor Recovery Measures
With hindsight, it is clear that almost immediately after the disaster, local and provincial government structures struggled into operations. Shelters and welfare camps were set up in schools and in places of religious worship; survivors were taken in by the thousands; hundreds of convoys from unaffected districts sent food and other essentials to affected areas. However, it was left to women’s groups to draw attention to women’s specific needs such as clothes, underwear, sanitary napkins, medicines, feeding bottles, and to show
that these were as basic and as important as food and shelter.14
Despite much literature urging an inclusive and gender-sensitive framework in policy processes, it took almost 24 months for State data banks such as the Department of Census and Statistics to recognise that data on disaster survivors need to be disaggregated by sex.
Much of the political discussion since the tsunami is focused on a mechanism to ensure assistance to the North East, reconstruction efforts, the effective implementation of the coastal buffer zone and relocation. To strengthen commitments by donors and bilateral agencies in identifying the “Guiding Principles of the Recovery and Reconstruction Strategy,” experts were sent by a consortium of donors in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Government to ascertain the extent of losses.15
These district team reports found that women were affected differently from men and that focused programmes to address women’s needs were urgent.16
However, official documents presented to the Development Forum held in May 2005, focused heavily on the economic and financial aspects of the disaster, drawing links with the ethnic conflict which had devastated the north and the east of the country. 17 Despite much rhetoric on mainstreaming gender into all development and planning processes, the key findings of the Donor-facilitated district level survey which highlighted the gendered impact of the tsunami, was articulated and reduced to only one sentence, “More women and children died as many men were away from their homes at the time of impact.”18 Similarly in early 2007, as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Colombo presented its draft plans for support areas, gender was identified as a “cross-cutting” issue but was allocated less than a third of the budget of the UNDP programmes in Sri Lanka.19
In 2005, the Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN) advertised for the post of a Gender Coordinator. However, this position never materialised. In contrast, in May 2005, the Disaster Management Act was passed by Parliament and the Disaster Management Centre was operational in September 2005.20
The State further brought into effect the Tsunami (Special Provisions) Act No. 16 of 2005 which was enacted in June 2005. 21 At the same time, the Government approved a proposal submitted by the National Committee on Women to mainstream gender in post-tsunami recovery and reconstruction with a special focus on widows, livelihood assistance for women, appointment of women to disaster management committees at all levels, providing land rights for women in relocation to ensure joint ownership.22 By 2006, TAFREN was absorbed into a new institution, the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA). With the setting up of the Ministry for Disaster Management and Human Rights, RADA is now expected to be absorbed into this Ministry.
The setting up of various institutions mandated to address post-disaster relief programmes has been moved a number of times over the past two years, indicating the lack of a clear policy framework. In this context, the advocacy to integrate gender into these institutions becomes even more urgent.
Land Rights and Relocation The rights of women to land and property ownership is an area which is of particular importance in the formulation and implementation of policies regarding relocation. It is an important component of the MDGs which recognise that in order to eradicate poverty, to promote gender equality and empower women, women must have access to productive resources. In Sri Lanka, the legal framework for ownership of private lands recognises the concept of joint ownership; this is not so in relation to the alienation of State land.
Although the Sri Lankan Constitution recognises equality of women and men, much of the policy in relation to land ownership is informed by notions of male as head of the household. The implication is that women are clearly discriminated against when State land is allocated to families; government resettlement of those who have lost their land and property will be focused on State land.
By being deprived of equal access to land ownership, women remain vulnerable to eviction from the home, and to domestic violence.
By being deprived of equal access to land ownership, women remain vulnerable to eviction from the home, and to domestic violence. Women are also constrained as they are unable to show collateral when requesting loans to improve their livelihoods.23 Female-headship is currently recognised only in situations where there is an absence of the adult male or, if the adult male is incapacitated. Even within this limited definition, national level data indicate that 21.5% of households headed by
women are poor.24 The tsunami- affected southern districts of Matara, Galle, Kalutara and Colombo show a higher percentage of poverty among female-headed households compared to male heads of households. At present, no census data is available in the North and Eastern Districts of the country.25
In the East, there is a custom of bestowing land received by mothers as dowry or inheritance to daughters. However, in the post-tsunami relocation programmes, the State has shown little sensitivity to these practices, relying instead purely on the Land Development Ordinance and the State Lands Ordinance where the right to state land is given to the household head, deemed to be the male.26
When survey results on gender impact of the tsunami began to be analysed, it became clear by 2006 that socio-cultural barriers to women survivors’ access to land was a major area of concern. The National Committee on Women, the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women, Centre for Women’s Research (CENWOR), Agromart Foundation and the Centre for Policy Alternatives were among the organisations which raised this. Meetings were held and appeals drafted and submitted to policy making institutions, such as the RADA and the Land Commissioners Department. These called for immediate measures to ensure that women are not discriminated against in the allocation of land or home ownership to tsunami-affected families.27 Despite the many efforts of women’s organisations, gender discrimination continues to be a focus of strong
advocacy for equal rights to land.
Access to Livelihoods
...prioritising of male-focused economic activities overlook those small scale but essential activities which women have long been engaged in, such as processing fish, making and selling foodstuff, traditional bobbin lace making, and coir production.
Much of the focus of implementing recovery programmes over the past 24 months has been on large scale projects such as the provision of fishing boats, equipment and economic ventures. The policy continues to address housing, transportation, infrastructure and such issues as livelihood restoration for fishermen, small farmers and small and micro-enterprises, but the challenge of integrating a gender responsive framework remains unaddressed.28 Such prioritising of male-focused economic activities overlook those small scale but essential activities which women have long being engaged in, such as processing fish, making and selling foodstuff, traditional bobbin lace making, and coir production. Given that even in State-run poverty alleviation programmes, the burden of providing food for the household is expected to fall on women, reports of men using State assistance to satisfy their own needs, such as expenditure on cigarettes and alcohol, at the expense of family needs, ought to be critically examined.29
Enabling women to access skills training also remains a key issue. It is important to stress that such skills should be those which women are able to utilise for viable economic ventures and not confined to skills which are based on gendered notions of women’s capabilities.30 Skills to access the more lucrative jobs in the construction industry however, has not materialised despite the construction boom that has taken place.
Conclusion
The tsunami brought to light the repercussions of not making available, on the national level, gender-disaggregated data and for not mainstreaming at all levels, gender responsive programmes. At the highest level of policy, it was shown during the negotiations between international donor agencies and the government that there is a significant gap between the rhetoric of gender mainstreaming and the identification of practical programme support areas and the allocation of funds.
The close link between women’s right to property and their access to livelihoods is underscored by the fact that these issues have been repeatedly raised by women’s groups at the ground level as being inadequately implemented during post-disaster relief operations. In Sri Lanka, land is distributed according to the notion that the man and not the woman is the household head. The practice impacts negatively on the ability of women to obtain the right (sole or joint) to ownership of State lands. At the same time, the recognition given primarily to men as the parties who engage in farming, effectively cancels women’s economic contributions to agriculture and their right to assistance.
The above discussion shows the urgency of putting in place gender responsive policies for post disaster relief and reconstruction. Nevertheless, the advocacy on women’s rights shows its impact in unexpected ways. For example, the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act has been incorporated in the formulation of the application form of the Land Commissioner General’s Department for Resettlement of Tsunami survivors. This recognises the special rights of women and children who have been subjected to domestic violence.31
The issues raised in this paper point to the overall international and national frameworks of State obligations to support non-discriminatory gender policies. The framework forms an important context for continued advocacy for gender responsive programmes in post-disaster situations and the elimination of gender-based discrimination.
Endnotes
1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the International Conference of Asian Scholars, Shanghai, 2005.
2 Aryabandu, M. and Wickremesinghe, M. (2003). Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management: A guide for South Asia. Intermediate Technology Group (ITDG) South Asia.
3 Government of Sri Lanka. (2005). Report of the Government of Sri Lanka and Development Partners. Sri Lanka: Post-tsunami recovery and reconstruction. Colombo. December; World Bank. (2005). Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit, South Asia.; Lanka Marketing Digest. (2005). “Rebuilding Sri Lanka: Opportunity in chaos.” Tsunami Aftermath Special Report. Vol 11, Issue 7.
4 Asian Development Bank and World Bank. (2005). “Rebuilding Sri Lanka: Assessment of tsunami recovery implementation.” Report of team visits carried out in January-March. Colombo.
5 TEC. (2006). Tsunami Evaluation Coalition: Initial findings. www.almap.org/tec
6 World Bank. (2003). Gender Equality and the Millenium Development Goals. Gender and Development Group. Washington.
7 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). (1979). Other UN Conferences which have focused on the specificities of women’s rights and gender concerns are: the Rio Conference on Environment and Development (1992), the Vienna Conference on Human Rights (1993), the Cairo Conference on Population and Development (1994), the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development (1995) and the Istanbul Conference on Human Settlements (1996).
8 Pittaway, E. (2006). Isis International-Manila.
9 Ibid.; Silva, K.T., Kottegoda, S. and de Silva, D. (2002). “Mobilisation of the Poor - A means to poverty reduction? Final Evaluation of the Change Agents Programme in Sri Lanka.” SIDA Evaluation 02/08. Stockholm; Kabeer, N. and Subramanian, R. (2000). “Institutions, Relations and Outcomes.” Kali for Women. New Delhi.
10 Gooneseker, S. (2006). A Gender Analysis of Tsunami Impact: Relief, recovery and reconstruction in some districts in Colombo. Colombo: CENWOR.
11 Personal discussions with representative of the Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum, Batticaloa, April 2005; National Committee on Women. (2006). Gender and the Tsunami: Survey report on tsunami affected women. Colombo; Goonesekere, S. (2006). Op.cit.
12 One of the important responses of women’s groups to the needs of women survivors was the setting up of the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women (CATAW). The main concern was to help build the capacity of locally-based women’s organisations dealing with tsunami recovery and rehabilitation efforts and to lobby to ensure that women’s concerns are met and that women are included in decision making positions and processes at the local, regional and national level. Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women (CATAW). (2005). ‘Briefing Note 1: Women’s Groups Appeal for an Inclusive Framework for Disaster Response’ Colombo; CATAW (2005). ‘Briefing Note 2; National Committee on Women (2006). Op.cit.
13 National Committee on Women. Op.cit.; CATAW (2005). Ibid; Asia Pacific Women, Law and Development. (2006). Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of women’s human rights in Sri Lanka. Chiang Mai; Goonesekere, S. (2006). Op.cit.; Action Aid. (2007). Citizens Report on Violations of Women’s Rights in the Aftermath of the Tsunami. Colombo; Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. (2005). Report of the Women’s Division: Disaster Relief Monitoring Unit. August; CATAW (2007). Women’s Stories. Forthcoming. Colombo.
14 Among the organisations which responded immediately to the needs articulated by women’s groups working in the tsunami affected areas of the East, North and South of the country beginning on December 29th, 2004, were the Sri Lanka Women’s NGO Forum comprising Women and Media Collective, Centre for Women’s Research, Women’s Education and Research Centre, Voice of Women, Ruk Rekaganno, Kantha Shakthi, Sri Lanka Federation of University Women, the Mothers and Daughters of Lanka and, the Women’s Development Foundation, Kurunegala.
15 Asian Development Bank and World Bank. (2005). “Rebuilding Sri Lanka: Assessment of tsunami recovery implementation.” Report of team visits carried out in January-March. Colombo.
16 Ibid.
17 World Bank. (2005). Sri Lanka Development Forum: The Economy, the tsunami and poverty reduction. Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Sector Unit, South Asia Region. Colombo. 16-17 May.
18 Ibid, p. 11.
19 Discussion called in January 2007 by UNDP in Colombo on the United Nations Common Country Assessment (CCA), Sri Lanka, 2006.
20 Goonersekere, S. (2006). A Gender Analysis of Tsunami Impact: Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction in Some Districts in Sri Lanka. Colombo: CENWOR.
21 National Committee on Women. (2006). Gender and the Tsunami: Survey report on tsunami affected households. Colombo.
22 Government of Sri Lanka. Op.cit. p.31
23 CPA. (2005). Landlessness and Land Rights in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka. Study commissioned by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. November.
24 Department of Census and Statistics. (2005). Selected Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) Indicators. Colombo. It should be noted that in the absence of comprehensive census data in the north and east of the country, this figure is skewed and only illustrates the situation in the rest of the country.; Kottegoda, S. (1999). ‘Female-Headed Households in Situations of Armed Conflict: A note on some issues of concern. Nivedeni. Colombo: Women’s Education and Research Centre (WERC).
25 Department of Census and Statistics (2005). Op.cit.
26 CATAW and the Women’s Coalition for Disaster Management, Batticaloa (2005). Memorandum to the Members of TAFREN: Women’s representation in decision making bodies on shelter and land rights for women in the post-tsunami resettlement process. March. Colombo.
27 Goonesekere, S. (2006). Op.cit; Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions. (2006). Gender Sensitive Guidelines on Implementing the Tsunami Housing Policy. Colombo: COHRE.
28 World Bank. (2005). Op.cit.
29 Action Aid. (2007). Op.cit; Kottegoda, S. (2003). “Interventions in Poverty: Women recovering from poverty or women recovering the family from poverty.” Poverty in Sri Lanka. Colombo: Centre for Poverty Research, IMCAP, Slaas.
30 Kottegoda, S. (2001). A Study of gender aspects of communities living with drought and landslides in Sri Lanka. Colombo: Intermediate Technology Group (ITDG) South Asia.
31 Land Commissioner General’s Department. (2006). Circular 2006/3 for Tsunami support. October.
Rural Women and Natural Resources in Nepal:Women’s Roles in Survival versus Hegemonies
The use of natural resources is essential to everyone and is a basic human needs especially to those living in rural environments. For people denied such access, life is a matter of survival, many survive at the cost of extreme dependence on those who have access.
The fourfold caste divisions are Brahman (priest and scholars), Kshatriya or Chhetri (rulers and warriors), Vaisya (or Vaisaya, merchants and traders), Sudra (farmers, artisans, and labourers). Caste determines an individual’s bahavior, obligations, and expectations. All the social, economic, religious, legal, and political activities of a caste society are prescibed by sanctions that determine and limit access to land, position of political power, and command of human labour.
Source: http://countrystudies.us/ nepal/31.htmSuch is the case of Nepal, a landlocked country located between China (north) and India (south, east, west). It has a population of 28,901,790 (July 2007 est.) and a total land area of 147,181 square kilometres.1 While Nepal consists of unlimited natural resources such as water, timber, hydropower, and scenic beauty, it has an extremely fragile environment. It is often affected by severe flooding, landslides, and famine and faces environmental problems such as deforestation because of an overuse of wood for fuel. These often have negative impacts on people in rural areas who depend highly on nature for their survival. It must be noted that the majority of people, especially those in the rural areas, depend on land and agriculture as an economic activity.
Because patriarchal ideologies and religious laws prevail in Nepal, dimensions of identity such as gender, caste, and ethnicity create hegemonic privilege on the use of natural resources.
Practices based on religion and patriarchy inevitably play a role in maintaining social inequalities. The dominant religion is Hinduism which stratifies castes into four: the Brahmin as the highest, Kshatri, Vaisya, and Shudra or Dalit as the lowest/untouchables. Practices leading to gender inequality such as the unequal division of labour based on the patriarchal tradition puts women to work in domestic (reproductive) sphere and men to work in the public (productive) sphere. While women are engaged in completing household chores, bearing and rearing children, taking care of the elderly, providing water and food to family, men often work outside the home—mostly in skilled jobs and/or income generating activities.
Hegemony
The predominant influence, as of state, region, or group, over another or others.
Source: www.dictionary.comBecause patriarchal ideologies and religious laws prevail in Nepal, dimensions of identity such as gender, caste, and ethnicity create hegemonic privilege on the use of natural resources. This paper aims to draw attention to the hegemonic politics at the micro level pertaining to the access to natural resources from the women’s perspective, and to come up with recommendations. The paper will present examples of how Nepalese rural women ensure their family’s survival as they play a vital role in the provision of water and food.
Customary and legal framework
The patriarchal custom of preferring sons over daughters (a discrimination and deprivation on the basis of sex/gender) starts immediately after birth.
...a weak and restricted legal framework is not better or worse than the cultural regulatory framework which denies inheritance of properties and land rights to women. They only reinforce patriarchy as these laws are biased and male-centred.
The right to inheritance and access to property and land are denied to women while the inheritance to son is claimed as a son’s birthright. Although a legal bill has been passed as a government initiative in 1997 declaring daughters as co-heirs of the parental properties including land, it has certain biases such as only daughters who remain unmarried until the age of 35 (which represents half of their life since the average Nepalese woman’s life span is 57.1 years),2 can inherit parental properties or land. If they marry later on, then they are to return the properties to their maternal relatives. On the other hand, those who are married have equal right to the ancestral property or land of their husband’s side if their husbands are not alive provided that they are 35 years of age or married for at least 15 years. Such a weak and restricted legal framework is not better or worse than the cultural regulatory framework which denies inheritance of properties and land rights to women. They only reinforce patriarchy as these laws are biased and male-centred.
The Hindu caste system custom stratifies Brahmins (highest caste) as high profile people and Dalits (lowest caste) as low profile people. The latter are called pani nachalne jaat (caste from whom water is not accepted) and the water touched by them is considered polluted and unusable; whoever comes into contact with them needs purification. This makes it difficult for Dalits to get access to water-wells and other public natural resources.
Nepal’s Constitution of 1990 states that no discrimination shall be made against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, sex, caste, tribe or ideological conviction. Following this, in August 2001, the Nepalese Government said, “it would outlaw discrimination against lower-caste Hindus and ... pass a law ending the centuries-old system that deems certain people untouchable.”3 Although from time to time such mandatory is passed, they haven’t as yet proved effective.
Family survival lies on deprived women’s shoulders
Nepalese rural women (especially those in the far western region, northern hilly regions, and terai region) are poor and disadvantaged due to lack of access to education and income as well as lack of rights to land and property.
In poor families, girl children are rarely sent to school while parents somehow manage to send their boy children. Whatever parental property the family has is inherited by sons; it is seen as their birthright and their right as caretaker of parents in their old age. Daughters have no such privilege to inheritance; they are perceived to be burdens who are to be married off. They are instead provided only with a dowry (money and gifts) which in many cases are later possessed by the husband and his family. Although girl children belonging to economically stable families get schooling opportunities during their childhood, they too are forced to marry and leave the house when they grow up. Although they receive a higher amount of dowry compared to poor family’s daughters, still they lack rights to equal inheritance of parental properties; hence, their economic status remains low in the household of the husband. Such customary practices find their roots from Nepal’s religious and patriarchal culture.
Women, from childhood until marriage and later age, depend on male members (father, brother, husband, and son) of their household who have access to all economic sources. Yet, it is these women who play an important role in ensuring the family’s physical survival. They walk miles through the forests and mountains in search of water and firewood, jeopardising their health. A study by Kumar and Hotchkiss (1988)4 indicates that during times of high deforestation, women’s time needed to collect one load of fuel wood increases by seventy-five percent. This gives them less time for themselves and to engage in other productive activities. They also fall ill and suffer from various diseases, abortion, etc. as they walk, in the hazardous forest areas over the hills and on the slippery roads, sometimes barefoot. Fuel wood shortage further intensifies women’s deprivation as they save on fuel and eat less. It is also known that women eat least, and last.5
Hegemonic religious laws and the water crisis
Women’s physical and mental suffering worsen when there is shortage of water. Women belonging to the Dalit caste are denied access to water from communities where upper castes such as Brahmins reside. In some cases they are even tortured if they try to get water from Brahmin areas. These extreme cases can be seen in Nepal’s rural areas where privileged (hegemonic) groups (identified by caste, ethnicity or class) often play unethical roles— under-privileging and denying certain others access to public natural resources. Water wells are sometimes privatised by the so-called upper castes, this then becomes a question of survival for Dalits. Women being the providers of water to their families, often become victims and suffer not only from a violation of rights but also from torture and violence.
Although such challenges put women’s well-being at risk, so far, Nepalese women have not compromised and have continuously worked to secure their family’s well-being. Women denied access to water wells look for other options such as traveling a long way to forests and hills in search of spring water. Currently, some women have even courageously filed cases against the violators, thus challenging the caste system.6 Although from time to time women have showed resistance to discriminative practices through protests and demonstrations and demanded their fundamental human rights, events have not turned in their favour as, overall, society is still male-dominated. On the macro level, policies and laws are made without addressing social inequalities and hegemonic power relations.
Hegemonic patriarchal ideologies limit women’s access to land
Although from time to time women have showed resistance to discriminative practices through protests and demonstrations and demanded their fundamental human rights, events have not turned in their favour as, overall, society is still male-dominated.
Landlessness is the cause of acute poverty in Nepal where the majority depends on agriculture for food production. The first government initiative (1951) and several more programmes, later on land reform, tended to abolish the unequal shares of excessive land ownership by distributing equal shares to landless and poor farmers in rural areas. However, this has brought about another for m of unequal ownership, where family male members claimed ownership; those lands became their family properties and passed on to sons, excluding women. Such patriarchal customs continue to deny women inheritance and property and land rights. The government initiative, lacking in gender analysis, ignored gender-based needs in agriculture and access to land and thus has been very ineffective till this day. This is seen as biased and weak.7
Ninety percent of private lands are owned by men while women own only ten percent.8 Although statistics show women own about ten percent of land, it can be assumed that these women either come from urban liberal families or simply are widows who inherited their husband’s land. Since women cannot decide on family land use, it becomes difficult for women especially those in the rural areas to think of planting trees in their own lands and making use of them instead of using the forest resources, which are heavily used for survival purposes and are fast becoming extinct.
Further concerns on women’s access to natural resources
Women not only physically and mentally suffer from unequal power relations but their long travels in sourcing and fetching water makes it difficult for them to get involved in productive activities such as adult education and income generation.
Hence, it is assumed that women unknowingly cause the depletion of forests due to less education and information. Women’s excessive use of marginal natural resources tends to enforce the cycle of environmental degradation and poverty.9 Women cut down trees from forests and hillocks to meet their cooking needs. As a result, the forest springs disappear, and the cycle of deforestation and environmental degradation continues.
Are women doing so due to lack of knowledge of environmental ethics? Or is it simply because the forest trees are the only resource available to them? Although the consequence is that women themselves suffer, as they have to walk far in search of drinking water, the devastating outcomes—among them ecological deterioration, deforestation, shortage of water and fuel woods—are brought about not only because of ignorance but also because of limited circumstances. Women have no other options available to replace forest woods, unlike other societies where people enjoy conveniences like solar stoves, and most of all, ownership of lands. Because the actual problem is never studied from the women’s perspective, projects that include women in natural resource management are not effective in the long run.
Women are family protectors, need listening ears
Although the sexual division of labour, which assigns women to work in the domestic sphere and take care of the family’s physical needs, and assigns men to work in the public sphere and take care of the family’s economic needs, women ensure their family’s survival by facing various challenges. These challenges in providing food and water many times put women at risk but they still manage to protect other people’s lives. They often endure the situation continuously, even without any support from family or community. Hence, women’s strength as the family protector may seem mysterious and legendary but this comes from their
ability to manage natural resources. This acquires greater importance in rural fragile environments.
Considerable attention is required from policymakers and planners in natural resource management. Equally important is to revitalise women’s strength so they can challenge the existing hegemonic politics that hinder their well-being. Those working for human rights seek to abolish such inequalities but many times are not able to hear the cries of those who often silently endure pain just to protect their families. Sometimes women are even blamed for making heavy use of natural resources and causing deforestation. Their ignorance is cited but their needs and their dilemmas are not heard.
Attention needed at macro level
he bottom line may be argued thus: since women are the major users and managers of natural resources such as water, forest wood, trees programmes at the macro level must include gender- sensitive analysis of the gender-based needs and roles in people’s access to natural resources.
While undertaking such policies and reforms, women who have been marginalised by hegemonic politics as well as weak legal regulatory framework and customs (including the caste system, patriarchal ideology, religious laws) should be consulted. They should raise their voices. More females should design legal and policy frameworks, thus avoiding male-centered ones. Women should be given proper training and education on natural resource use and management, thereby reducing the scarcity problems as well as ecological degradation. Women’s vulnerability as well as strengths in securing their family’s survival in the struggle over natural resources need appropriate policies which promote women’s rights.
Endnotes
1 The World Factbook. (2007). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/np.html.
2 UNFPA. (2000). State of world population.
3 Gurubacharya, B. (2001). Nepal acts to outlaw caste discrimination. London: The Independent.
4 Kumar, S.K. and Hotchkiss, D. (1988). Consequences of deforestation for women’s time allocation, agricultural production, and nutrition in hill areas of Nepal.
5 PRB. (2002). Women, Men and Environmental Change.
6 Jana Uthhan. (2007).
7 Thapa Prem Jung. (2001). The cost-benefit of land reform, Himal South Asian.
8 Neupane, S. (1999). http://www.apwld.org/wrwd_nepal.htm
9 Dankelman, I. (2001). Gender and Environment: Lessons to learn. DAW, ISDR.
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