Gender and the Environment: Recent Initiatives to Improve Sustainable Development Policy, Planning and Practice

Abstract

This article reviews recent attempts to include gender and environment issues in development policy, planning and practice. The current transition from the earlier women, environment and development (WED) approach towards a gender, environment and sustainable development (GED) approach is highlighted, and possible pointers for such an approach are given.

Of particular interest is the emerging conflict model of natural resource use (FAO, 1997), which necessitates a holistic analysis of the highly location-specific effects of international, national, local and household systems of production, reproduction, distribution and consumption and how these affect natural resource depletion in a particular area.

A gender perspective would need to be an integral part of such a conflict model. It is, therefore, proposed that a gender analysis and planning framework should be merged with the model of natural resource management platforms for resource use negotiations (Röling, 1994) between different groups of actors, at different levels. As both gender and the environment are social constructs, conflicting interests over resources as well as perceptions of these need to be negotiated between the different interest groups in order to reach more accurate problem definitions and suggested solutions.