182
Keywords Gender · Female leadership · Participatory monitoring · Environmental
management · Natural protected areas
Introduction
Gender and the Environment
Current socio-ecological problems present new challenges due principally to the
multiplicity of actors and interests that interact in the management of natural
resources (Maya and Ramos 2006). In the last decades, one of the approaches that
have dominated the discourses, public policies, and research at the international and
national levels to address these problems is the gender perspective. The gender
approach emerged in the mid-1970s as a criticism of dominant development strategies. These criticisms were aimed at the need to recognize women as producers,
mainly in agriculture and to abandon the idea that their role was exclusively “reproduction,” that is, take care of the home, raising children, and attending husbands
(Nieves 1998; Braidotti 2004). The focus of Women in Development, WID, was the
first international approach in the 1960s that proposed the integration of women in
the present development model, which was a western and predominantly patriarchal
model (Soares et al. 2005).
Also, in the decade of the 1970s, the ecofeminist current emerged as a critique of
the male dominated development model and with the premise that the relationship
of women with nature is stronger than with men due to maternal and biological
stimuli (Nieves 1998; Braidotti 2004). In the mid-1980s, both approaches were
criticized even by feminist movements, as it was considered that women were only
being incorporated into the Western model and that they had the right to create an
alternative development model. This is how Gender and Development (GAD)
emerged in the late 1980s, which represents a transition to not only integrate women
in development but also to look for the potential that development initiatives have to
transform inequalities in women, social and gender relations in order to empower
women (Arellano 2003). Shortly afterwards, the Gender, Environment, and
Sustainable Development movement emerged, in which the man–woman–environment relationship is analyzed. This approach indicates that men and women use and
perceive resources in a differentiated way that is why their interests and priorities
are also different (Arellano 2003). Rocheleau et al. (2004) proposed the concept of
“feminist political ecology” where gender is a critical variable that grants access to
resources and their control, by interacting with class, ethnicity, age, and culture, in
order to understand the struggle waged by women and men to sustain ecologically
viable ways of subsistence and the possibilities that society has to achieve sustainable development.
Thus, women participate as a key factor in community development processes
and are recognized as intermediaries in the relationship between sustainable development and the environment, with population growth, migration, patterns of production and consumption, and social inequalities (Arellano 2003). In addition,
D. Pinedo et al.
Keywords Gender · Female leadership · Participatory monitoring · Environmental
management · Natural protected areas
Introduction
Gender and the Environment
Current socio-ecological problems present new challenges due principally to the
multiplicity of actors and interests that interact in the management of natural
resources (Maya and Ramos 2006). In the last decades, one of the approaches that
have dominated the discourses, public policies, and research at the international and
national levels to address these problems is the gender perspective. The gender
approach emerged in the mid-1970s as a criticism of dominant development strategies. These criticisms were aimed at the need to recognize women as producers,
mainly in agriculture and to abandon the idea that their role was exclusively “reproduction,” that is, take care of the home, raising children, and attending husbands
(Nieves 1998; Braidotti 2004). The focus of Women in Development, WID, was the
first international approach in the 1960s that proposed the integration of women in
the present development model, which was a western and predominantly patriarchal
model (Soares et al. 2005).
Also, in the decade of the 1970s, the ecofeminist current emerged as a critique of
the male dominated development model and with the premise that the relationship
of women with nature is stronger than with men due to maternal and biological
stimuli (Nieves 1998; Braidotti 2004). In the mid-1980s, both approaches were
criticized even by feminist movements, as it was considered that women were only
being incorporated into the Western model and that they had the right to create an
alternative development model. This is how Gender and Development (GAD)
emerged in the late 1980s, which represents a transition to not only integrate women
in development but also to look for the potential that development initiatives have to
transform inequalities in women, social and gender relations in order to empower
women (Arellano 2003). Shortly afterwards, the Gender, Environment, and
Sustainable Development movement emerged, in which the man–woman–environment relationship is analyzed. This approach indicates that men and women use and
perceive resources in a differentiated way that is why their interests and priorities
are also different (Arellano 2003). Rocheleau et al. (2004) proposed the concept of
“feminist political ecology” where gender is a critical variable that grants access to
resources and their control, by interacting with class, ethnicity, age, and culture, in
order to understand the struggle waged by women and men to sustain ecologically
viable ways of subsistence and the possibilities that society has to achieve sustainable development.
Thus, women participate as a key factor in community development processes
and are recognized as intermediaries in the relationship between sustainable development and the environment, with population growth, migration, patterns of production and consumption, and social inequalities (Arellano 2003). In addition,
D. Pinedo et al.