CGIAR Gender News

Gender and social inclusion

Forest Photo: Fiston Wasanga/CIFOR

An estimated 1.6 billion people around the world depend on
forests and tree-based landscapes for their livelihoods and well-being.

However, not all these people have equal power to decide how forests are managed or how resources are shared and distributed. Women, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and other marginalized groups are often disempowered in policy regimes and by exclusionary social norms; their voices are rarely heard in decision-making processes. These structural barriers stand in the way of sustainable and equitable development goals.

To address these inequalities, the CGIAR Programs on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) and Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) have developed a gender-sensitive project portfolio that explores the links between gender, economic development and forestry at multiple scales.