THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CONSERVING GENETIC DIVERSITY

Women have traditionally played an important role in managing the genetic diversity in their regions, harvesting carefully, and allowing regeneration so that the resource base is sustained over generations. In many Asian societies, field operations like ploughing and marketing are done by men, and the selection and storage of seed, planting and weeding in fields, by women. Women generally use their knowledge of natural and biological resources to satisfy multiple household needs. They breed well-adapted varieties and develop sophisticated farming systems using a range of crop varieties, to ensure food and nutrition for the family. Their access to and use of genetic resources is unhindered and they succeed in making effective use of them for food, fodder, medicine and other essential products.

The transformation of agriculture to meet the needs of a globalizing market economy is contributing to the steady erosion of the biological resources and knowledge systems controlled by women. The trend towards monocultures and cash crops in a high input, intensive agriculture system, to produce crops on contract or for urban and export markets, is impacting negatively on women’s role in domestic and local arenas. 

Communities often have well-defined gender roles in plant and seed selection and storage. Traditionally women in Asia often use a variety of indigenous plants, trees and animals, and they have a direct stake in conservation. The Neem tree, for example, is used as a bactericidal agent in agriculture, in the household for storing food and to prevent infections. Women tend to take a lead role in preserving and conserving croplands, forests and other natural resources for perpetual use. Men are more likely to be involved in converting these resources into cash. Women are also often the traditional caretakers of genetic and species diversity in agriculture. Their knowledge of growing conditions and nutritional characteristics of various species trains them in seed selection and plant breeding. In many societies, it is women who are mainly responsible for this, as well as for seed exchange and preservation of local bio diversity, often gathering fruits and medicinal plants from forests for immediate use or for sale at local markets.

The ‘Convention of Biological Diversity’ (CBD), which affirms the sovereign rights of nations over their bio resources, calls for conservation of bio diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources. The CBD makes reference in the Preamble to the central role of women in conserving bio diversity and knowledge of plant properties: “Recognizing also the vital role that women play in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and affirming the need for the full participation of women at all levels of policy-making and implementation for biological diversity conservation”. ‘Agenda 21’, adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, also stresses the need to strengthen women’s involvement in national ecosystem management and control of environmental degradation. 

Other international plans of action have highlighted the critical role of gender in genetic resources conservation and sustainable utilisation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) publication, ‘Gender – Key to Sustainability and Food Security’, states: “Rural women in developing countries hold the key to many of the planet’s agriculture systems for food production, seed selection, and protection of agro-bio diversity. Women using diverse wild and indigenous species often use home gardens as experimental plots.”