NATURE COUNT$ GOAL 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls Photo: UNDP Afghanistan/Robert Few SDG 5 promotes equality between men and women through the elimination of discrimination, violence and harmful practices against women and girls such as forced marriage, but also by ensuring women have equal access to economic opportunities and effective participation in political, economic and public life. Empowering and treating women as an equal also involves the recognition of the value of unpaid care and domestic work. How do ecosystems and biodiversity support this SDG? Biodiversity and ecosystems are known, managed, and used differently across genders, and their degradation and loss affects men and women unequally. Biodiversity loss often serves to exacerbate gender inequalities, for example by increasing the time women spend in performing certain tasks like collecting food, fuel and water. On the other hand, paying more attention to gender-based differences and roles can strengthen biodiversity conservation policies and projects, leading to better results. Women s knowledge of natural resources often includes neglected species constituting an essential indigenous knowledge system which can benefit the conservation of genetic resources. The experiences and practices of women as cultivators and providers of subsistence goods and services, such as health and food processing, drive them to conserve and use a wide variety of species of plants. For example, research on 60 home gardens in Thailand found 230 different species of plants, many of which used to grow in a neighbouring cleared forest. It is thus essential to integrate women s knowledge and perception of biodiversity by involving them in biodiversity conservation decisionmaking structure and activities.
How does UNDP s work support this SDG? Case study: Models for protected areas and their co-management in Afghanistan The 650,000 km 2 of high mountains and grasslands that constitute Afghanistan are home to a diverse range of animal and plant species, and represent an essential stopover for Eurasian migrating birds. Yet decades of conflict have damaged habitat and landscapes, with only 3 percent of land covered by forest and the continuation of harmful agricultural and hunting practices, the country s biodiversity is threatened, and environmental degradation such as land erosion and deterioration of air quality is increasing. But the establishment of stronger institutions has led to the recognition that natural resource management is essential for the country s reconstruction. The consolidation of Band-e-Amir National Park as a functioning protected area and the designation of the entire Wakhan district as the country s second national park along with the development of a national framework for protected areas (National Protected Area System Plan, or NPASP) are first steps toward the protection and conservation of vulnerable species, such as snow leopard and Marco Polo sheep, and also of fundamental ecosystem services through the protection of watersheds and land rehabilitation. The enforcement of biodiversity conservation policies and establishment of additional protected areas is vital for the 85 percent of Afghans who rely on natural resources to make a living. The project aims to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management through the operationalization of the NPASP and the increase of protected areas coverage with improved protection status and better management. Executed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the project is building on the NGO s long-term engagement in these landscapes, consisting of capacity building for sustainable resource management, improvement in protected areas governance, among many other activities
enhancing conservation, sustainable use of natural resources and sustainable livelihoods in the country. This project seeks to mitigate land degradation pressures on habitats in key biodiversity areas, initially centered in Bamyan and the Wakhan, by putting these areas under sustainable land management regimes. The project is also taking into account the socio-economic drivers of overharvesting of local resources and conversion of grasslands to farming, by providing alternative livelihood opportunities to ensure that local communities, and especially women, are engaged in the protection process and receive a share of protected areas tourism revenue. Band-e-Amir National Park hired the country s first female rangers, an empowering step that has changed PROJECT: Establishing integrated models for protected areas and their co-management in Afghanistan FUNDED BY: GEF, UNDP EXECUTED BY: Wildlife Conservation Society LOCATION: Bamyan and Badakhshan provinces, Afghanistan DATE: 2014-18 WEBLINKS: https://afghanistan.wcs.org/ common views on the status and capacities of women. The project is building on this achievement by enabling more women to take part in conservation activities and decision-making processes. In its first year of implementation the project established effective management in 60,160 ha of protected areas in Band-e-Amir National Park and Wakhan Provisional National Park. The planting of 200,000 young trees in flood plains and around rivers adjacent to nine villages generated short-term laboring work for villagers. The trees will provide fuel and fencing wood, thus reducing pressure on local rangelands while improving local water retention and reducing the risk of floods. In rural Bamyan Plateau and Band-e-Amir, training sessions on environmental issues, wildlife conservation, protected areas and sustainable natural resource management have been increasing the knowledge and capacity of 390 school students and teachers, of which 40% were women. The project has also enabled the employment of 83 local people (including eight women) as community rangers and national park staff. The project expects to put 1,219,294 hectares under protection and effective management through comanagement agreements between local communities and national authorities. It will also further promote sustainable land management practices during field activities and awareness raising campaigns.
Nature count$: Key Impacts of the project on gender equality After the project facilitated their election, women now represent 20% of the management board of the Band-e Amir Community Council and the Wakhan Pamir Association, making important decisions concerning natural resource management on behalf of all communities. This is twice the national rate of female participation in formal positions, with only 9.9% of decision-making positions in government and NGOs held by women. After Band-e-Amir National Park hired the country s first female rangers in 2009, the project hired eight women as rangers and waste management staff in the park enabling them to contribute substantially to the household income; their $150 monthly salary represents 58% of the average household income in Central Afghanistan, and is almost three times higher than the average agricultural wage of male workers in Bamyan Province. Furthermore, in the largely cashless economy of Wakhan district, the project supported the engagement of 11 women in clothes-making enterprises providing uniforms for community rangers, giving them the opportunity to bring cash income into the household in a region where women contribute to the family income in only 16% of households. Involving women in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management in Afghanistan protected areas % of Women Decision Makers Before 2009 0 women in protected areas staff 2009 4 women become first female rangers in Afghanistan 9.8% 20% National Government Boards of 2 regional natural resource management entities 2015 12 women PA staff Empowering women by increasing their access to the control over natural resources By supporting the involvement of women in conservation activities and decision making at a regional and local level, the project helps ensure women s effective participation in decision making in political, economic and public life ( SDG Target 5.5), and by giving them access to control over natural resources ( SDG Target 5.a). How the economic impacts were calculated: In its first year of implementation, the project enabled the election of four additional women to the management boards of the Band-e Amir Community Council and the Wakhan Pamir Association, thus
representing 20% of board members (UNDP 2015). The boards of the Wakhan Pamir Association (WPA) and the Band-e-Amir Community Council (BACC) are composed of elected representatives from local community development councils and act as official regional natural resource management entities, representing all the inhabitants in these landscapes. They play an integral part in the co-management of the National Park. For example, the WPA with assistance from local authorities and the Wildlife Conservation Society, defined and demarcated key sections of the protected area boundary in the Big Pamir Wildlife Reserve. Furthermore, out of 269 local community members who participated in updating the Band-e-Amir National Park management plan, 21.5% were women. These levels of representation of women in key decision making positions for biodiversity conservation and natural resource management in both regions are over twice that of women s representation in decision making in Afghanistan. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported from a 2013 survey that women represented 9.9% of all decision makers from the government, the private sector and NGOs combined in the country. In Northeastern Afghanistan women represent 9% of government decision makers, 0% of private decision makers, and 6.7% of NGOs decision makers (CSO 2013). Women staff in Band-e-Amir National Park have been receiving a salary of $150 per month for five months annually for cleaners and seven months annually for rangers. This income represents 58 percent of the $260 average household income reported for Central Afghanistan in a survey from 2014 (Warren 2014). However this region includes the capital city, Kabul, where the average income is expected to be much higher than in rural Bamyan areas. Average agricultural wages in the province were estimated between $1.97 and $2.33 per day for an adult male worker, at current price 1 (Maletta 2003). A 25 working-days monthly salary for a male agricultural worker is thus around $49-$58 which is almost three times less than the wages for female national park staff. The 11 women tailors in Wakhan district have raised a much more humble income for their activities, making $100 each per year, expected to increase to $150 next year. Yet, it is still a significant outcome that these women have engaged in income-yielding enterprise, as in this remote area only 16% of households in Northeast Afghanistan reported having women contributing to the household income (Warren 2014). 1 Adjusted with a cumulative rate of inflation of 28.8% of the dollar between 2003 and 2016
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