Women in the Hindu Kush Himalaya play an important, though overlooked, role in the conservation of fragile mountain landscapes that sustain the lives of billions living downstream. In their multiple roles as farmers, herders, collectors of water, preservers of seeds, and household engineers, rural mountain women have vested interests in reversing deforestation, water pollution, soil degradation and biodiversity loss as well as encouraging the sustainable use of natural resources. The pragmatic efforts of women to conserve ecologically sensitive areas and the strategies they have developed to ensure the sustainable use of common property resources have been significant and effective. For instance, in Nepal, women’s involvement has played a key role in improving the health of the nation’s forests under community forestry, which had become severely degraded under previous management schemes.[break]
However, although women’s active involvement in the management of natural resources has had led to improvements in their sustainable use, it is women in the region who still face many challenges, including their exclusion from important decision-making processes and the under-recognition of their skills and knowledge. In particular, women pastoralists in the rangelands of the HKH region are at the margins and their voices and needs remain unheard.
Photos Courtesy: Nabin Baral
An upcoming study by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) on gender and pastoral livelihoods in the rangelands of Nepal, China and Bhutan reveals the story of women’s marginalization. The ICIMOD study indicates that while pastoralists the world over are already at the margins of development, men pastoralists enjoy greater access to information, ownership of livestock and property, and decision-making power over the management of livestock and time allocation for social networking. In contrast, women in the rangelands expend a great deal of time and energy in household tasks like rearing animals and collecting water and fuel. For instance, research from Nepal reveals that women work on average 17 hours a day. Compare this to pastoral men who spend only 12 hours in the multitasking lives that characterize pastoralism. Indeed, women have little time for rest and leisure.
Unequal divisions of labour based on gender, the harsh mountain climate and topography, degrading rangelands, and limited options for livelihood diversification have many impacts, particularly on women, children and the elderly. Women pastoralists interviewed in Upper Mustang, Tibet and Bhutan mentioned anemia as a critical maternal health issue. According to the World Health Organization’s country office in Bhutan, around 60 per cent of women in the country are suffering from iron-deficiency anemia. For most of these women, access to health services and the necessary inputs for a healthy diet are not available. During the coldest months of the winter, when most male herders migrate to earn additional money, women and the elderly are left behind, suffering from bitterly cold temperatures.
The case study in Nepal shows that natural resources from rangelands meet only 11 per cent of the total demand for energy required by pastoral households, forcing women to walk long distances to collect fuelwood and animal dung.
Women also reported increased shortages of water. This means that collecting water has become more difficult and arduous in terms of increased time, effort and personal energy required, which has also led to adverse effects on women’s health. In addition to reports by case study participants of more frequent droughts, they have also indicated that sources of water in rangelands have become scarce and the quality of water has declined.
While pastoral women in the region experience gender-based discrimination at the household level, development programmes and rangeland governance policies often further marginalize them. Unequal access to critical development resources, such as information and knowledge about pasture development, ways to plant kitchen gardens, new technologies, and training are a challenging gender issue. The generally sporadic presence of both government and non-governmental officials among pastoral communities limits understanding of community dynamics and their needs. And addressing the specific needs of pastoral women is challenged by gender-biased extension services and a dearth of women extension staff in rangeland communities. In addition, rangeland-specific gender issues and women’s needs are often neglected in rangeland policies.
As research from Nepal and Bhutan reveals, pastoral women continue to be disadvantaged through exclusion from membership and participation in people’s organizations, both formal and informal. For example, the selection and operation of Mukhiya – the village-based informal governance system used among communities in Upper Mustang – gives men a greater degree of power in deciding natural resource use and management, as well as in planning development activities in the area. The role of pastoral women in local government institutions with influence in the decentralized planning and implementation of development programmes is nominal. Across Nepal, men make up 99 per cent of administrative roles in Village Development Committees (VDCs); in Bhutan, only one in 204 gups (head of a group of villages) are women.
Despite women’s important role in sustaining natural resources and increasing household food security, their rights to and ownership of forests, livestock, and land remain insecure. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal, in 2011, only around 10 per cent of household land ownership in Nepal was in a woman’s name; this figure falls to 1.9 per cent in Mustang District. In matrilineal communities of Bhutan, although women have stronger rights to property compared to women in other parts of the region, Bhutan’s National Commission of Women and Children argues that men have more say in decisions regarding major household issues and politics.
Despite these pastoral women’s marginalization, there is hope. The push for gender equality and women’s empowerment is gaining momentum in the region and globally. The formidable rise of the voices of South Asian women and men to end violence against women through policy and legislative change is a positive example. This should continue to inspire the people of the region to demand women’s rights to equal treatment, equal access to opportunities, and an equal role in decision making. Only then can the full potential of women’s input in improving natural resource management be realized. Policy makers, donors and development agencies, both governmental and non-governmental, need to recognize and respect women’s unique capability to promote sustainable mountain development processes. Equally importantly, concerted efforts in policy, research and practice are needed to identify and promote mountain-specific rangeland management technologies and development practices that create income generation and decision-making opportunities for pastoral women as well as to ensure their tenure over land and other natural resources.
Khadka [mkhadka@icimod.org] is Gender Specialist and Ismail [mismail@icimod.org] is Rangeland Specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
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