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GENDER AND GREEN GOVERNANCE (Oxford University Press, Oxford.) Author: Bina Agarwal
Economists studying environmental collective action and green governance have paid little attention to gender. Research on gender and green governance in other disciplines has focused mainly on women's near absence from forestry institutions. This interdisciplinary book turns that focus on its head to ask: what if women were present in these institutions? What difference would that make?
Would women's inclusion in forest governance — undeniably important for equity — also affect decisions on forest use and outcomes for conservation and subsistence? Are women's interests in forests different from men's? Would women's presence lead to better forests and more equitable access? Does it matter which class of women governs? And how large a presence of women would make an impact? Answers to these questions can prove foundational for effective environmental governance. Yet they have hardly been empirically investigated. In an analysis that is conceptually new and statistically rigorous, using the author's primary data from India and Nepal on community forestry institutions, this book is the first major study to comprehensively address these wide-ranging issues