Role of Women in Forest Management

————————————————- Cudia, Jane Victoria A. February 23, 2011 2007-15891Soc Sci 180 Role of Women in Forest Management Increasingly, the role of indigenous peoples in forest management and conservation had been recognized on the international level. Even if forest management and conservation had been an indigenous practice since time immemorial, recognition of indigenous peoples roles started only three or four decades ago.
However, indigenous peoples as protectors of the environment are taken as a whole disregarding the contribution of roles and differences as contributing factors to the continuous practice of forest management and conservation. In terms of IP roles in forest management and conservation, gender is a very important thing to consider. Given an indigenous social and political context, the management of forests is communal. In general, forest management is primarily the domain of men. Women’s participation on the other hand primarily lies in forest protection because there is an intimate relationship between IP women and the forest (Caguioa, 2011).
However, problem lies in the lack of recognition in national policies as to the roles of IP women in forest management and conservation. The pine forest of Brgy. Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province is a communal forest shared by different communities managed mostly by indigenous peoples. For the people of Brgy. Agawa, the forest or langdas is the source of livelihood and a place where their unique culture thrive, one of the major features of indigenous peoples. In terms of livelihood, the langdas is the source of wild fruits and animals, lumber, and firewood.In the indigenous law they practice, selling of pine lumber is prohibited. Also, outsiders are prohibited from getting anything from the langdas making the practice sustainable. In terms of tradition and culture, they believe that there are spirits guarding the rivers and forests. This is one of the reasons why indigenous peoples do not exploit the forest resources. Also, they manage the forest in a sustainable way because of the belief that their ancestors, who were buried in sacred places, mingle with their affairs. The role of women in environment protection, forest management, and conservation is very significant.
Two of the key informants of the study conducted by Caguioa (2011) and her colleagues are old women who spent most of their life living in the area. The people of Brgy. Agawa, has a history of resistance in protecting the langdas and the environment. One sign of protest they had done before was the exposure of older women’s breast to oppose people who wanted to operate saw mills in the area back in the 1940s. In response to the secret resin tapping activities done to pine trees that operated during the 1970s, women of Besao secretly removed the plastic catchers and burned all of it.
In general, women of Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province show their protest in the regional and national level in opposition of road construction, mining, and logging projects that will ruin the langdas. Amidst globalization, vulgar consumerism, high demands from the market, and laws that treat us all equals [sometimes even without regard to culture], the people of Brgy. Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province especially women managed the forest in a sustainable way. Following their traditions and belief systems, they had managed to conserve the forest by following natural mechanisms to restore the forest.
Given the resources and knowledge systems we have as members of the dominant and so called “developed” society, we should devise forest management and conservation mechanisms that are easy and applicable. However, due to a market-driven economy we engage in, we have no control over our resources anymore. The working mechanism that works today is “what the market demands, the market gets” even at the expense of the environment and the people who manages to protect and conserve the forest.
Forest management, although primarily dominated by men, it should be the domain of all even if there are differences in gender. As seen in the case of Brgy. Agawa, Mt. Province, women had great contributions in forest management and conservation. It all goes down to this: in effective forest management and conservation, gender roles and differences have a lot to offer. Reference: Caguioa, M. C. (2011). Panagsalaknib ti Langdas: Role of Indigenous Women in Forest Management in Brgy. Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province from the Global Lecture Series on Indigenous Peoples’ Studies (University of the Philippines Baguio).
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