Women's dependence on forest and participation in forestry: A case study of joint forest management programme in West Bengal

Abstract

JEL classification: Q23 J16 C25 Q56 Keywords:Bengal forest resource Gender driven participatory forest management Physical and financial dependence on forest Determinants and factors affecting participation in forestry a b s t r a c tThe study examines extent of women's dependence on forest and their participation in gender sensitive planning of joint forest management programme in West Bengal, where the provincial government made pioneer attempt during early 1990s by establishing separate female forest management unit to accommodate women's preference, needs, knowledge and values on forest resources providing separate provision in institutions. It suggests that women's participation in their own management unit is substantially higher than men's in the general (joint) forest management unit, and the former ensures women's major contribution to their household's income with women's greater physical involvement in forestry works.

Does the gender composition of forest and fishery management groups affect resource governance and conservation outcomes? A systematic map

“…Of the included studies, four were primarily qualitative [49][50][51][52] and 13 were primarily quantitative [8,17,18,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. Of the quantitative studies, the unit of analysis for all but three was the group, and the average sample size was 132 groups.…”

“…Of the quantitative studies, the unit of analysis for all but three was the group, and the average sample size was 132 groups. Two studies used households as the unit of analysis [57,58], and one used fish ponds ('beels') [59].…”

“…Among the quantitative studies, seven use regression models with governance indicators as dependent variables and gender composition of groups as the explanatory variable [17,18,[53][54][55][56]59]. Among the remaining quantitative studies, the designs comprise before-after, control-impact quasi-experimental designs from a single site [57,58], a before-after, control-impact quasi-experimental design across multiple sites [8], a before-after comparison [61], a control-impact comparison [60], and a frequency distributions of response for women's, men's, and mixed-gender groups with a least significant difference test for group averages [62]. For the qualitative studies, two use, inter alia, key informant interviews, focus-group discussions, and participant observations [51,52], and one uses key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and secondary information [49].…”

Linking Women’s Participation and Benefits within the Namibian Community Based Natural Resource Management Program

“…People-centered approaches are said to enable both men and women have equal potential to participate (Das, 2011), and gender balance in decision-making authorities for collective action is recognized as having both equity and efficiency implications.…”

“…Many of the products women depend on in traditional societies are relatively frequently needed and are often non-monetized, such as firewood, medicinal and edible products. In contrast, men often have control over resources that are used less regularly but that are able to generate larger incomes, such as timber and wildlife (Rozemeijer & van der Jagt, 2000;Agarwal, 2010;Das, 2011).…”