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Women, Agriculture, and the Environment
Presentation by Lauren Richey
Women & Agriculture
Women are the majority of agricultural workers worldwide
The world is dependent on the work of women farmers
Women produce the bulk of the food consumed by their families, local communities, and globally
Colonization
Systematic attempts made by colonial powers to destroy female systems of farming
Separation between agricultural workers (especially women) and land
Introduced new divisions between men and women
Women as subordinate to men
Struggles for Women
Food security
Reproductive crisis
Non-capitalist, non-commercial use of natural resources
Defend subsistence agriculture and communal access to land
Genetically modified crops
Protests & Resistance Movements
Introduction of cash crops
Destruction of women’s subsistence farms
Selling of their land
Land privatization
Rising food prices
Commercial logging and deforestation
The Narmada Valley India
Narmada Valley
Home to more than 21 million people
The site to one of the world’s largest multipurpose water projects
The Narmada River Development Project
Supposed to increase food production and hydropower generation
No detailed assessment done of the overall effects of the project
Estimated that one million people would be displaced
Save the Narmada Movement Movement began in the 1980’s
A struggle for just resettlement and rehabilitation of the people who would be displaced
Focused on preserving the environmental integrity and natural ecosystems of the valley
By making the environmental, economic, and social problems apparent, the movement forced the World Bank to withdraw from the project
Silent Valley Movement One of the last remaining untouched
rainforests in India
In the 1960’s the state government began planning a dam to generate hydroelectricity as the basis for regional economic development
Dilemma between environment and development
Silent Valley Movement brought attention to the ecological consequences
The state government abandoned the idea in 1983
Silent Valley National Park
Nepal’s Community Forestry Program
Introduced in the 1970’s
Countrywide, government-sponsored method of forest management
Goal was to involve local communities in the management and preservation of the forests
Involved women in its efforts
Kenya’s Green Belt Movement Founded in 1977 by
Wangari Maathai
Encouraged rural women to plant trees
Participants have planted over 30 million trees
Women maintain tree nurseries and engage in environmental conservation along with community development activities
Kenya’s Green Belt Movement
The goal of the Green Belt Movement is to create community consciousness, social justice, and equity, along with improved livelihoods, a reduction of poverty, and increasing environmental conservation and awareness
The Chipko Movement
Started in the 1970’s in India
A rural, non-government organization of people
Based off the Gandhian idea of satyagraha
Non-violence resistance movement
The Chipko Movement
“Hug A Tree” movement
Goal was to protect the trees of Himalaya from commercial logging and deforestation
Women were at the forefront of this movement
The Chipko Movement The survival of local populations
and forest dwelling communities was directly linked with access to the forests, healthy soil, clean water, and pure air
The people’s movement was opposed not only to the felling of trees for commercial purposes but also to other environmentally destructive activities
The Chipko Movement was trying to conserve not only local forest resources, but also the entire life support system where nature was neither exploited or destroyed
Environmental And Women’s Movements
Unite people who have a common interest in saving the environment
Women are prominent leaders and participants
Women have a great responsibility when it comes to the survival of a community
Women’s work is directly linked with forests and natural resources
Environmental awareness and conservation, subsistence agriculture, in addition to sustainable development and resource use, are necessary not only for the survival of women, their families, and local communities, but
for the world as a whole to continue to thrive and live on