Forest Caucus Report

A Newsletter of the Canadian Environmental Network Forest Caucus

Towards Gender Sensitive Forestry
Tyla Crowe, Sierra Youth Coalition

Feeling a slight bit under-represented as a twenty-five year old woman amongst the many suits, graying men and bearded foresters during the seven days I attended the conference, I thought that I should write an article about women’s perspective on gender issues at an international level. Gender Equity and feminist critique were happily a part of the congress and, better yet, if the formal recommendation is acknowledged by the Congress Planners, these issues shall be show-cased at the next Forestry Congress.

The two events on gender perspective were quite alternative to the other formatted shows: We sat in circles instead of in rows and each introduced ourselves while afterwards the talks took on a flow of its own only slightly regulated by the hosts. Everyone was, right off the bat, made to feel as if whatever they said would be appreciated. This is much Like the NGO morning meetings we held (not a big surprise) and Unlike any other official forum I attended. In my opinion, humans retain and grow in knowledge and wisdom when the old-school formal format is thrown out and we are suddenly able to just be ourselves, understanding that we can only solve real problems by working together.

The first event created an action network via the web for women in Forestry, and second event was a discussion set by three Indonesian women about equity and the gender war in their country. The agenda and information by the beautifully poetic Muslim women impressed me greatly, thus I chose to share the incredible side event on Sustainability of Community-based forest management through a woman's land tenure system.

The existence of Traditional and Indigenous resource-use activities can still be found in some Indonesian communities. I recognize these exotic places not by ever having visited them but by the different Kinds of coffee I love to drink: Sumatra, Java Island and Sulawesi. The 'forest people' living a subsistence lifestyle in these countries do so because the forest is recognized as hugely sacred, entrusted to them by previous generations- and they fear that if they cut down and damage the forest their ancestors - and not government policy - will wreak havoc. Some of the communities plant and reorganize small parts of the land for annual and perennial crops like bamboo, fruit trees, medicine plants, beans and rice. The cultivation is an integrated system shared by men and women, but with women doing most of the work as they also have the job of maintaining the household. It is reported that the average working day for most women is sixteen hours! Things have taken a turn for the worse since these Indigenous forest communities are now being forced to work for wealthy land owners to meet their annual harvesting. The land they are forced to work on was once theirs. It is stolen by the National government and the private forest companies (sound familiar?) while the land left in their name often is but 0.2 acres parcels per family. This is only enough to feed the people at a minimal level and this is why they are forced to work outside their communities for other people. On top of this we have our usual case scenario of the young people moving to city centers where they can earn a slightly higher wage – the desire for modern surplus is definitely a western ideal which the youth are starting to accommodate.

But, like with all issues around forestry, land claims and deforestation, there is hope and action. The amazing women of these talks are taking a stand to guarantee the sustainability and development of community-based natural resource and the rights of Indigenous people. They are pushing for women's independent rights in the adoption of forest-management policy, and are educating and financing women to own their own co-ops. The presenters from Indonesia understand that if these communities’ cultures and social fabrics are to be retained the government’s insistence of foreign management strategy should be seriously re-defined.

And that is a small glimpse into a side event at the World Forestry Congress. For Your Information, within these talks eco-feminism, hierarchy, misogynist systems and lack of knowledge of women's struggles were also touched upon.