15 December 2016: A fact sheet published by the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW) highlights the role of gender in wildlife management, exploring connections to sustainable livelihoods, food security, human-wildlife conflicts and the unsustainable and illegal trade of wildlife. The fact sheet was published in coordination with the UN Biodiversity Conference in Cancún, Mexico.

The fact sheet emphasizes the role of women in activities like bushmeat hunting, which is traditionally male-dominated. It notes that not only are women involved as hunters themselves, but by expressing a preference for men who hunt as potential partners, influence the way the activity is carried out. The publication suggests that wildlife management programmes involving alternative livelihood opportunities must benefit both women and men to be successful.

The publication also discusses how conservation practices that exclude sustainable use practices, such as hunting, can hurt women by decreasing the availability of food to their families and overlooking damage from wildlife to crops and small livestock. It suggests that in some cases, selective hunting bans may be more appropriate where bushmeat is needed for food security. It further notes that compensation schemes for conserving wildlife should consider women’s labor costs, for example through in-kind compensation rather than monetary payments. It also calls for additional education, training and sex-disaggregated data.

The CPW is a voluntary partnership of international organizations with substantive mandates and programmes for the sustainable use and conservation of wildlife resources. CPW includes the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), among others. [FAO Press Release] [Publication: Fact Sheet: Sustainable Wildlife Management and Gender] [Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management]