Gathered around a small pot of boiling maize in a remote village in Gbana is Ruby, a peasant farmer, as well as her four children who are waiting to cook their last meal.

Life has not been easy for the family and many other farmers in and around their village as their crop yield has been poor due to bad weather.

Ruby and farmers in other parts of the world are among people in the global community who are experiencing the negative impact of climatic change as a result of human activities.

Given that men and women have different roles in using and managing natural resources in their community, gender issues do affect environmental strategy. Despite performing active roles in its use (such as collecting water and fuelwood), women in developing countries are seen to have less control over the resources. Case studies have also shown that women have less decision-making power to mitigate natural disasters and hazards.

These papers explore gender equality in poverty and environment interventions, studying how the greater involvement of women impacts environment conservation and improves livelihoods.

• Poverty-Environment Gender Linkage (OECD)
  
• Social and Gender Analysis in Natural Resource Management (IDRC)
• Gender and Desertification: Expanding Roles for Women to Restore Drylands (IFAD)
• Dry Taps… Gender and Poverty in Water Resource Management (FAO)
• Gender and Climate Change: Giving the “Latecomer” a Head Start (IDS)
• Gender: The Missing Component of the Response to Climate Change (FAO)
• Gender, Class and Access to Water: Three Cases in a Poor and Crowded Delta
• Integrating Indigenous and Gender Aspects in Natural Resource Management (WWF)
• Climate Change and Disaster Mitigation: Gender Makes the Difference (IUCN)
• Bangladesh: Gender Mainstreaming Processes in Community-based Flood Risk Management (Gender and Water Alliance)
• Gender Perspectives on the Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification (FAO)
• Everything Counts! Valuing Environmental Initiatives with a Gender Equity Perspective in Latin America (IUCN)

The aim of the research project is to analyze processes of land claims, restitution and settlement in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, GSLWP, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

The study focuses on poor rural women as natural resource users trying to assess women´s impact on the environment and their access to resources as a means to sustain livelihood options and well-being. What are the prerequisites for poor local people, and in particular women, to participate and secure their rights to resources within the Park? Will an integrated management model allow them to become co-managers?

In many of the world's drylands, women's traditional knowledge of and roles in natural resource management and food security are crucial. Women across the developing world spend considerable proportions of their time using and preserving land for food and fuel production, and for generating income for their families and communities. They are therefore severely affected when erosion and diminished soil fertility result in decreased crop and livestock, productivity and reduced income derived from these products.

Gender issues have made a slow entry into the climate change debate. This is partly due to the fact that climate change has generally been perceived as a global phenomenon, with little attention being paid to differentiating the potential impacts that women and men might face. For example, women tend to have less access to valuable resources such as land and credit, which reduces their capacity to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change.

The gender aspects of climate change have generally been neglected in international climate policy. This report, produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), argues that gender, like poverty, is a cross cutting issue in climate change and needs to be recognized as such.

How can indigenous and gender concerns be included in natural resource management projects? In most developing countries, women, particularly indigenous women, are responsible for obtaining water and fuel and for managing household consumption. As a result, they are especially concerned with the quality and sustainability of natural resources. Yet, because women are largely absent from decision-making, environmental policies often do not take into account the close links between their daily lives and the environment.

In 2004 the Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) in Bangladesh designed and implemented a project on flood vulnerability, risk reduction and improved preparedness through community-based information.

Who pays the price of loss of biodiversity, climate change and desertification? According to the Rio Conventions - the United Nations (UN) Convention on Biodiversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) - it is rural populations in poor countries.

Women play decisive roles in managing and preserving biodiversity, water, land and other natural resources, yet their centrality is often ignored or exploited. This publication aims to make the links between women and the environment more visible, with an explicit focus on the gender-related aspects of dryland systems, water resources and biodiversity conservation and management. It argues that while many problems are global, solutions must be local.