COP16: Making Space for Women

CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) has a Pavilion at COP16 and hosted a number of side events. I attended "The role of women in peacebuilding and biodiversity conservation: Integrated approaches to community resilience", which focused on intersectional approaches and the urgent need to mainstream gender in biodiversity conservation. One of the points emphasized was that there is a need for not just gender-sensitive but gender-responsive plans. So many different things come into intersectionalities with gender equality because they add different layers of oppression. Women still have limited access to education and resources and are still excluded from high-level discussions regarding peace. Women play a key, invisible role in agriculture and are in charge of dealing with natural resources; their livelihood is linked with biodiversity. There is a need to make contribution more visible and involve them in conversation.

Indigenous women have said that they do not need empowerment, they need alliances. Using the Mangrove ecosystem in Colombia as an example, one speaker explained women are in charge of collecting molluscs and learn much about conserving the ecosystem. Hence, it is important to not only ensure women's presence but also their influence in decision-making. Women's access is limited by customary practice rather than government policy, and natural resource scarcity is a driver of violence.

UN Women put together an incredible event called "Defending the Women Who Defend the Planet". Gender-based violence takes many forms, not just physical violence. War and extractivism have been led by men, climate change and food insecurity disproportionately impact women. For example, lack of water affects over 40% of the world's population and women are mostly in charge of water collection. The act of collecting water, particularly during a drought, is just one in a long list of reasons that women are more likely to die due to climate disasters. Data and statistics are needed to make these realities visible and to show what solutions are effective.

There has to be a comprehensive plan for protection and safety of women, along with discussions about safe and secure environments, starting with a woman's body. Violence against a woman's body when she is using it to tend to the land and to biodiversity should be completely unimaginable. If there is no safety for women, there is no safety for anyone.

In a practical example of the link between biodiversity conservation and women, seed banks are developed by women. They allow farmers and gardeners to collaborate and maintain native species, creating a wide collection of seeds that have adapted to soil types, high temperatures, climate, etc. They are available for people to share knowledge, and this knowledge fills gaps.

There has to be a feminist framework for biodiversity and both investments in and support for ecofeminism. There is a need to anchor the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Escazú agreement in gender and ensure that women's voices make it into these documents, which in turn impacts women. Women need to participate, not simply consult, in the decision-making process.