The role of gender in natural resource management: using micro projects as a vehicle to establish the role of gender in natural resource management

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of micro projects in the Communal Areas Management programme in Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) programme as a way of bringing in the gender component into natural resources management. Sustainable utilisation and management of natural resources is dependent to a large extent on the working relationships between men and women. Gender analysis in natural resource management is a fairly new phenomenon which is based on the realisation by practitioners that access to and control, as well as use over natural resources is not gender neutral. This realisation has made practitioners use the term gender to analyse the roles, responsibilities, constraints and opportunities of the persons involved in the management and utilisation of natural resources. The term gender refers to the socially created differences between men and women and how this affects their access to and control over resources. Feldsten, et.al. (1990) maintain that the lack of gender analysis in natural resource management has led to the design, implementation and evaluation of natural resource management programmes in a way that is insensitive to gender issues.