Overview

Early days of attention to people in forests

Rare but encouraging recent examples – toward sustainability

Importance of addressing gender

Some methodological considerations

Concluding with ‘why bother?’

[Photos by Colfer & Anastasia Widyaningsih]

World Forestry Congress Trajectory 1978 – 8th World Forestry Congress in Jakarta, Indonesia –

‘Forests for People’ – a first

1985 – 9th WFC, youth added

1991 - 10th WFC, ‘forest heritage’ added

A New Era:Aiming for

Broader Sustainability

By 2003 - 12th WFC, included three main themes:• Forests for people

• Forests for the planet

• People and forests in harmony

For 2015: Forests and People: Investing in a Sustainable Future

CIFOR Trajectory: Sadly, an Atypical Example

Started in 1993, CIFOR began with several important

commitments:

• Policy-oriented

• Interdisciplinary teamwork

• Research at all scales (int’l to field-based)

• Addressing both human and ecological, as well as strictly

forest concerns

Sample ‘People-Forests Research’ from CIFOR & its Partners (1)

Attention to human well being

• criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management

• poverty and environment network

Working collaboratively with communities and their

subgroups

adaptive collaborative management of forests

Some REDD+ work

Working with Women

Sample ‘People-Forests Research’ from CIFOR & its Partners (2)

Attention to people’s knowledge about forests indigenous knowledge (IK, ITK, IEK, etc.)

non timber forest products

A focus on power relations

ethnic and gender studies

decentralization and devolution studies

Involving Officials

A More Controversial SetFrom CIFOR & Partners

Swidden agriculture – as a complex and sometimes

sustainable system

Human health – looking at the interactions with forests and

their management

Nutrition – identifying nutritional implications of forest use

and management

Population – Recognizing the key roles birth control can play

in life chances

But attention to these issueshas NOT been typical

Most forestry institutions still have:

Little or no community experience or training

Single-minded concentration on timber (no NTFPs or biodiversity)

No social scientists

Even antagonism to local people (‘poachers’, ‘slash and burn farmers’, ‘illegal loggers’)

And What Results Have we Attained?

Forests remain in decline

Human well being has hardly improved

Benefits continue to be

inequitably distributed

Truly sustainable forest

management remains

a chimera

Women and Forests

Despite evidence of women’s

involvement in forests,

women remain relatively

invisible to the forestry world

(despite encouraging signs).

We have been ignoring

the potential contribution

of half the world’s

population.

Versus Gender and Forests

Looking at women alone

is not enough

(cf. little success integrating

new findings)

We need to look at

• the relations between

men and women

And

topics that have seemed

taboo

Elephant in the Room No. 1

Population

Local population

growth is a big

problem for forests

women without

access to birth

control, have limited

options

[A rare win-win issue]

Elephant in the Room No. 2

“Engaging men in care-giving …

is nothing less than afundamental

reworking of our work–life balance

and our beliefs in the purpose of our lives

andrelationships.”

[Gary Barker 2014]

The

‘Domestic’

(Reproductive)

If women

enter new fields

their existing

work must be

reduced by

men’s greater

involvement at

home

Elephant in the Room No. 3

Violence against women

Women who are routinely

subjected to violence ---

or even who witness

such violence --- dare not

move outside their (and

their spouses’) comfort

zones.

So How do we Incorporate Gender

considerations in our Work?

Methodologically Complex Topics

Not subject to conventional experimental designs, but they are studied by social scientists:

• Culture – a complex whole (knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and other learned capabilities and habits, Tylor 1871)

• Norms - a standard or pattern, especially of social behavior, that is typical or expected of a group.

• Values - a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.

Examples 1 & 2

A variety of site-specific and intangible, but powerful cultural

topics (e.g., from ongoing governance work in Sulawesi):

• Bugis-Makassar: concept of ‘honor’ has powerful inhibiting

effects on behaviour…

∆ Reducing women’s forest options.

• Makassar & Tolaki: women, rather than men, are accepted

as the legitimate managers of household income.

∆ Women have cash to invest (in forests?).

Examples 3 & 4

• Women speak up publicly to varying degrees, but some

groups report near gender equality.

∆ Women may have unrecognized power.

Tolaki: These ‘primitive’ people manifest a strong sense of

everyone’s right to be involved in decision-making.

∆ The people could provide a more gender-equitable

example for managing forests democratically.

Why should forest researchers venture into such topics?

To Enhance Sustainability

By What Means? In What Ways?

Ensuring that we ‘do no

harm’

Strengthening people’s

motivation to

maintain/improve forests

by ensuring more equitable

distribution of benefits

Catalyzing the creativity

(‘power to’) of all affected

people in better forest

management

Useful Approaches to Add (1) Conventional academic studies – though reliable, often couched

in alien jargon and requiring more time

Participatory Rural Appraisal – though good for exposing policymakers to rural realities, can provide misleading results

Useful Approaches to add (2) Ethnographic approaches---by those trained in the method---

allow researchers to gain holistic, reliable information on such topics

Participatory approaches---by those so trained---allow researchers to learn and build on the goals, interests, knowledge and capabilities of community partners

In Conclusion – In Search of Sustainability

We have much work to do

Assumptions about men

and women to overcome

Information to gather

and analyze (focused and

holistic)

Thinking about how to

integrate what we learn

into our ongoing forest

management

Where now arbitrary and culturally prescribed gender roles

have inordinate power to

determine---and preclude---life chances

for both men and women.

We can and should work toward a forest world in which women’s

and men’s strengths, interests and voices can

structure their own lives and

their interactions with forest landscapes.

The result should be worth the effort!