This important volume views gender relations as a crucial factor in the management of land and forests, and maintains that the continuing invisibility of women in these areas only compounds poverty, shortages, and the increased workloads of forest-based women.
Based on fieldwork conducted in several forest societies in China, Thailand, India and Malaysia, the contributors explore the changes in gender relations within indigenous communities, from matrilineal and/or gender egalitarian systems to ones where male domination is the norm. They assess changes in gender relations in forest-based societies in four situations:
- where there has been an imposition of colonial and state rule over forest communities
- where historical and contemporary revolts of forest-dwellers have taken place to reestablish community control over forests
- where states have responded to these autonomy movements by resorting to devolution
- where women's inclusion in local forest management is increasingly becoming a policy norm
Kelkar, Govind: -
Govind Kelkar is Coordinator, IFAD-UNIFEM Gender Mainstreaming Programme in Asia, New Delhi, and the founding Editor of the journal Gender, Technology and Development. She has previously taught at Delhi University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand where she also founded the graduate programme in Gender and Development Studies. Dr Kelkar has previously co-authored Gender and Tribe: Women, Land and Forests (1991), and co-edited Feminist Challenges in the Information Age (2002), and Gender Relations in Forest Societies in Asia: Patriarchy at Odds (2003). Dr Kelkar is a frequent consultant to IFAD, Rome, UNIFEM, New Delhi and other UN organizations on mainstreaming gender in development besides being a keynote speaker at many related conferences.
Nathan, Dev: -
Dev Nathan, an economist by training, is, Senior Visiting Fellow, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. He is also a columnist and a regular contributor to the Economic and Political Weekly. Dr Nathan has previously co-authored Gender and Tribe: Women, Land and Forests (1991), Assessment of Rural Poverty in Asia and the Pacific (2002), edited From Tribe to Caste (1997), and co-edited Gender Relations in Forest Societies in Asia: Patriarchy at Odds (2003). Dr Nathan frequently serves as a consultant to IFAD, Rome, several UN organizations and ICIMOD, Kathmandu, on issues of rural poverty and the development of indigenous peoples.
Walter, Pierre: -
Pierre Walter is Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Dr Walter's research interests include literacy, immigrant and extension education, comparative education and policy studies, alternative education, Asian studies and gender and development. He has contributed numerous articles to leading scholarly journals, besides serving as an Assistant Editor of Gender, Technology and Development. He has co-edited Gender Relations in Forest Societies in Asia: Patriarchy at Odds (2003).
