Gender-responsive participatory research for social learning and sustainable forest management

Abstract

Participatory research on forests has been commended for fostering social learning, innovation, community empowerment, social inclusion, and leading to more sustainable resource management. Yet, critiques of participatory approaches -and of the simplistic ways they are, at times, employed to address gender and social exclusionalso abound. These call for new strategies to meaningfully engage socially differentiated men and women in research on natural resource management. This special issue focuses on the nexus between gender and participatory research in forest and woodland management. It examines: (1) the diversity of stakeholders' forest-related knowledge, skills, needs and priorities in forest-dependent communities through the use of gender-responsive participatory approaches, and (2) choices in research design that can foster inclusive participation, knowledge sharing and social learning within and among social groups. In this introductory paper, we position the special issue in relation to critiques regarding the lack of attention to gender in participatory research. We then summarize the authors empirical findings, contextually rooted across four African and Asian countries, and their importance for understanding the value, opportunities and challenges of working with participatory methods, both from the perspective of the researchers and of the research participants. The papers illustrate that traditional ecological knowledge is neither homogeneously distributed within communities nor concentrated among socially more powerful groups who, in the absence of a gender-responsive approach, are often the ones selected as research participants. The authors offer an optimistic view of the potential participatory methods hold, when applied in a gender-responsive way, for sharing knowledge and promoting inclusive social learning on forests and tree resources. Papers demonstrate the need to carefully consider when to create segregated or mixed spaces -or indeed both -for participants to create situations in which social learning within and across diverse social groups can occur.

What can be learned from fishers’ perceptions for fishery management planning? Case study insights from Sainte-Marie, Madagascar

“…In particular, we suggest favouring female-led interviewers as women might be more comfortable talking to the same gender [ 45 ]. Using multiple data gathering technique could also be beneficial; for instance, conducting interviews in small, women-only focus groups might allow women to share their perspectives [ 93 , 94 ]. Finally, alternative to traditional participatory research methods (i.e.…”

Bridging molecular genetics and participatory research: how access and benefit‐sharing stimulate interdisciplinary research for tropical biology and conservation

“…Furthermore, participants from local communities and organizations must be carefully selected to ensure equitable outcomes for different groups, by integrating women and other disadvantaged groups in the research activities (Elias et al . ).…”

Advancing Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

“…Fellows participated in learning workshops, wrote papers, 6 including a special issue (Elias et al 2017b), and participated in international conferences 7 to strengthen their capacities. The Fellowship Programme created a community of practice on gender within FTA and enhanced the overall genderresponsiveness of the FTA portfolio (Thull et al 2015).…”

“…In one project, the creation of contact zones in India, where women and men from different age groups and castes come together to discuss forest management through participatory research, showed that such approaches can dismantle social divisions and promote unity in collective natural resource management (Hegde et al 2017). Cross-country research in the context of the Gender Research Fellowship Programme facilitated the design and testing of participatory research approaches for studying social inclusion across multiple countries, and illustrated the strengths and challenges of various methodologies (Elias et al 2017b;Faridah et al 2017;Karambiri et al 2017;Nchanji et al 2017). FTA further showed the value of participatory approaches for working with government and development practitioners on gender-responsive tenure reforms, using 'participatory prospective scenarios' (Rodríguez Cortés and Ospina Rojas 2016; Bourgeois et al 2017;Larson et al 2019a;Monterroso et al 2019;Jhaveri 2020), and for linking local, national and global needs, aspirations and capacities for forest restoration through participatory monitoring (Evans et al 2018).…”