People’s Perception on Community-based Forest Management: The Case Study of Njombe District, Tanzania

Kaganga, Laison; Ndumbaro, Festo G.J.

doi:10.56279/jgat.v36i1.134

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Land tenure ownership and active participation play important roles in women's activities and decisions over their access and use of forest resources (Chiwona-Karltun et al, 2017). Kaganga and Ndumbaro (2017) in their study in Tanzania, Njombe District noted that married women were more informed on the wood resources than married men but lacked participation in decision making; they could not, for example, respond to some questions on land ownership. It has been argued by Ajake and Abua (2015) that although women have limitations due to their disadvantaged position in land and tree tenure, among other things, they have the potential and opportunities to ensure sustainable use and management of forest resources when their rights to land ownership are assured.…”

Section: Perceptions Toward Echoing Women's Forests In Sfmmentioning

confidence: 99%

The forgotten half? Women in the forest management and development discourse in Africa: A review

Duguma

Nzyoka

Obwocha

et al. 2022

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Numerous theoretical and empirical studies examining women's engagement in sustainable forest management (SFM) have shown that women bring distinctive interests and values to forest management. However, their effective engagement is still low due to bottlenecks such as rules of entry, ownership, labor division, social norms, perceptions, rules of practice, personal endowments, institutional outcomes, and other organizational cultures. Key among those are the gendered perceptions that marginalize them from the onset. As a result, women's potential to promote SFM in Africa has not been exploited effectively, yet. This raises concerns for gender and social equity as the current practice socially excludes groups that hold specific ecological knowledge, skills, and interests that influence SFM practices. By critically reviewing systematically selected 104 studies conducted on gender issues and forest management in Africa, this paper explores how women's role in forest management and the broader development discourse is constrained. It also characterizes the prevailing engagement models and shows how they influence inclusive processes of deploying SFM practices. Women's engagement in SFM is dominated by public/civic engagement and significantly lags in effectively engaging them as stakeholders, experts, or households. Of the 104 studies reviewed, 54% (n = 57) characterized women's engagement as largely through public meetings compared to 5% (n = 5) as stakeholders and 4% (n = 4) as experts. Thirty-four percent (n = 36) did not clearly categorize the engagement type. Women's engagement in SFM is merely to fill the gender ‘representation' requirements and any effective roles such as decision making, ownership, and benefits are not under the control of women at large. As a result, women's potential to promote forest management and avert ongoing forest loss is not exploited. There is a need to transition from mere representation to a meaningful engagement of women in the sector for inclusive forest management to flourish. In general, capturing, recognizing, and effectively utilizing women's voices and potential in forest management and development discourse requires institutions that deliberately embrace inclusivity and promote equity in general and across gender.

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Section: Perceptions Toward Echoing Women's Forests In Sfmmentioning

confidence: 99%