Women worldwide countervail environmental crises

1
Women worldwide countervail environmental crises

• Irene Dankelman M.Sc.
• Radboud University Nijmegen/WEDO
• New Orleans, 10 February 2007

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Introduction

• Your pain
• Is the pain felt by women
• worldwide.
• Your carrying-capacity
• and caring capacity resembles theirs.

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Contents

• Short overview women in action
• What moves women?
• Some theoretical reflections
• Womens voices in environment
• Challenges for the future.

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Short Overview

• Three centuries ago Amrita Devi, Bishnoi
  community, Rajasthan, India protection trees.
• Since 1974 Chipko movement,
• India protection forests
• livelihoods.

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• Since 1980s Narmada Bachao Andolan, India
• prevent dam construction.
• 1950s Nakabaru/Sanroku
• Womens Society, Japan
• protesting against
• pollution industries and
• powerplants.

6
Africa

• 1977 Green Belt Movement, Kenya
• treeplanting democratization.
• 1999 Niger Delta Women for
• Justice, Nigeria
• prevention exploitation by
• oil companies.

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Eastern Europe - NICs

• 1990s Aigul, Ural and Mama86, Ukrain protest
  against (nuclear) pollution for healthy
  environment democratization.

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Womens Leadership

• Rachel Carson Silent Spring (1962)
• Donella Meadows Limits to Growth (1972)
• Bella Abzug
• US congress woman, founder WEDO
• Gro Harlem Brundtland Our Common Future (1987)

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Womens Leadership

• Rigoberta Menchu-Tum
• Nobel Peace Price, Guatemala
• Maria Silva
• Minister Environment Brazil
• Wangari Maathai Nobel Peace Price,
• founder Green Belt Movement.
• Sarojeni Rengam founder director
• Pesticides-Action Network Asia-Pacific.
• See www.unep.org Whos who women in environment

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WEDO

• Womens Environment and Development Organisation
  (www.wedo.org)
• Programme areas governance, economic justice,
  and sustainable development.
• Womens Action Agendas 2000 and 2015.
• Women do not want to be mainstreamed in a
  polluted stream, they want the stream to be clean
  and healthy, Bella Abzug (1920-1998)

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What moves women?

• Gender relationships division of labour, tasks,
  responsibilities and rightsgt power-structures.
• Daily interactions with the physical environment
  determine environmental priorities and visions.
• Environmental degradation affects women
  directly
• adding burdens of time, energy, bad health, less
  opportunities.
• Reproductive roles
• strong commitment
• to the present and future
• wellbeing of the family.
• Environmental crises
• physical, mental and emotional drivers.

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Environmental Action

• Organizing common voice, decision-making
• Resistance protest movements
• Research, monitoring, watch-dog
• Information, publication, education (campaigns)
• Lobby and advocacy
• Regeneration activities
• Developing and
• promoting alternatives.

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Theoretical reflections women - environment.

• Womens work (roles) Esther Boserup (1970),
  Geeta Menon (1991)
• Ecofeminism Carolyn Merchant The Death of
  Nature (1980), Vandana Shiva (1988) a.o.
• Critics e.g. Braidotti, Agarwal a.o. (1994)
• Feminist Political Ecology
• Dianne Rocheleau (1995)
• Feminist Environmentalism
• Bina Agarwal (1998)

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Womens voices in theEnvironmental arena

• Sustainable Development is
• not possible without equity
• (Lorena Aguilar, IUCN)
• 1985 Womens Conference Nairobi environment is
  a womens issue
• 1992 Earth Summit (UNCED) Rio de Janeiro Agenda
  21 gt reflects womens leadership in environment.

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..continuing..

• 1995 Womens Conference Beijing Platform for
  Action women and environment (section K)
• 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development,
  Johannesburg
• gender issues included
• Environmental Organisations
• (IUCN, UNEP, FOEI etc)
• gender mainstreaming.

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FUTURE CHALLENGES educating women for a world in
crisis

• Education as empowerment.
• Interdisciplinary holistic knowledge base
  intellectual and emotional
• our lives in context.
• Historical perspective.
• Understanding interbeing.
• Role of men in environment
• and sustainable development.

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Women as the Voice for the Environment

• We will continue the struggle for a peaceful,
  just and healthy planet for all, in a spirit of
  full cooperation and global solidarity we call
  upon all concerned to step up actionTogether, as
  agents of change, bound together by our
  commitments to justice, equality and peace, we
  can sustain our environment, and our common
  future.
• (WAVE Conference, Nairobi, October 2004)