8 March 2011: The 43rd issue of Arborvitae, the IUCN Forest Conservation Programme’s Newsletter, is subtitled “Attending to Gender” and highlights gender-related initiatives, including those related to climate change, forests and land tenure.

In an article on gender and climate, the author writes that gender entered climate negotiations in Cancun, with eight references to women and gender in the Cancun Agreements. It suggests that these achievements are the result of a process of evidence gathering and advocacy efforts on gender at national and global levels.

The newsletter also spotlights a new gender initiative, jointly launched by IUCN, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) during the UN Cancun Climate Change Conference, aiming to ensure that women are an integral part of negotiations on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).

In an article on gender and land tenure in the Philippines, the author writes that lack of attention to gender differences and exclusion of women in the issuance of stewardship certificates and land titles can undermine positive gains from community forestry by creating adverse impacts for women and perpetuating gender inequality.

In a case study from Tanzania, the author concludes that boosting women’s involvement in sustainable, export-oriented agroforestry would increase income levels for women and the whole community, ease the poverty of women-headed households, and enable women to become more visible in commercial agriculture in the future.

Finally, in an article on women’s exclusion from forestry, the author suggests that as long as foresters and environmental experts support a conservation approach that restricts forest management to minimal human activity, women who rely on forests for livelihood use will be unwelcome actors in biodiversity initiatives. [Publication: Arborvitae]