Landscaping Actually

Landscaping Actually

Publisher (Copyright): International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Cali, Colombia 2014 Editors: Purabi Bose, Social Scientist and Focal Contact for CIAT’s FTA-Gender, Cali, Colombia, and Savyasachi Anju Prabir, Communication Intern at CIAT and Student of Shristi School of Arts, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India.

Creative design and layout: Savyasachi Anju Prabir Citation: Bose, P., and Savyasachi A.P., (Eds.), 2014. Landscaping actually: Forests to farms through a gender lens (2nd ed.). CIAT, Cali. http://issuu.com/gender2014/docs/landscaping_actually Text from this book may be quoted or reproduced without charge, provided the source and photographers are duly acknowledged. No use of this photo and story publication may be made for resale or other commercial purposes. All photographs remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any purpose without written permission from the source.

The electronic version of this book is available to download free of costs. This e-book was launched at IUFRO World Forestry Congress side-event, October 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

For further information, please contact: International Center for Tropical Agriculture Km 17, Recta Cali-Palmira, AA6713 Cali, Colombia Email: ftagenderphoto@gmail.com Web: http://ciat.cgiar.org Cover page photo credit: Savyasachi Anju Prabir

Landscaping Actually Forests to Farms through a Gender Lens

GENDER LENS: ZOOM-IN FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION Reality is what we see.

There are thousands of books, journal articles, infobriefs, policy briefs and grey What we see depends on how we look. literatures that address global issues of How we look or our perspective makes a managing forests, agroforestry systems and small farms. Many of these literatures are difference toward bringing social change.

This book Landscaping Actually: Forests reviewed and referred by academicians and to Farms through a Gender Lens is a researchers. Typically, researchers gather step towards such social change. The data from local communities and analyse book focuses on gender equity and them applying scientific theories and hypotheses. When you look through these social inclusion to showcase real stories and photos of how men and women are big data, hypotheses and theories you managing forests, agroforestry and small often see that scholars are communicating farms. with scholars or policy makers and donors.

This is one of the important aspects for Gender cuts across various forms of research-for-development. Often, such social exclusion. Gender equity and approach lacks creativity to fully engage wide range of socially excluded actors. social inclusion is a key toward achieving sustainable management of forest It is not science but wisdom that ‘a resources. To achieve gender and social picture tells more than a thousand words’. inclusion there is a need more than ever Based on this wisdom we embarked on before to engage various stakeholders (men visualisation of forests, agroforestry and small farms through a gender lens. It is an and women) such as farmers, students, youths, private sectors, and government out-of-the-box approach. officials.

CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry integrating Gender (CRP-FTA Gender) at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) send out an invitation to contribute for the international photo and story competition with a twist. The creative twist was about using the gender lens. The invitation for photo competition was not limited to researchers or photographers but to all men and women who know how to look, how to see and how to capture pictures to tell a story about forests-agriculture interface through a gender lens.

This book is based on the belief that we make a maximum impact when we communicate about our work – both success and failure – to a wider audience using a range of communication and social media. We believe that pictures break the global language barriers, and connect people, whether they are farmers, middleclass urban families, public enterprises, donors or students.

We are pleasantly surprised by the many beautiful, endearing but sometimes also heart breaking scenes that were captured and submitted to us from all the corners of One of the participants struggled with the the world. We cannot reproduce them all concept of ‘gender lens’ saying, ‘I have a on this place. But, not a single submission nice collection of lenses. They include a had to be rejected for poor quality. All are wide-angle lens and a tele-objective, but I good. From this wide range of collection do not know where to find a gender lens.’ we present to you in this book the ones The moral of the story is simple. If we want we consider best. Best in terms of telling to see how women and men relate to each a story related to forests, agroforestry other and society to them, we all – including and small farms seen through the gender this participant – have a gender lens. lens. Next to each picture, a brief story

appears written by the photographer from his or her perspective. This uniqueness of taking a different look at science from people’s perspective brings out rich cultural perspective about gender values and norms in our society. Everybody involved in this book are an agent of gender equity and social inclusion.

Landscaping Actually Forests to Farms using a Gender Lens book covers a wide range of issues including men and women’s individual and collective ability to deal with forest conflicts, wildlife conservation and access to non-timber forest products from forest and agroforestry landscapes. Hope these photos speak to your heart, mind, imagination and soul.

Women collecting forest resources for household needs Altaire Cambata

Women take on ‘invisible’ household responsibilities

People: Balinese Place: Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia Date: July, 2012

Rural men and women engage in almost similar livelihood activities in Nusa Penida. However, women take on additional responsibilities in the household management. Women collect non-timber forest resources such as fuel wood and dry palm fronds for cooking.

Globally for many families non-timber forest products such as medicinal plants, foods, fibers, and resins constitute not only an important source of income but for cultural, spiritual and familial tradition.

This photo is representative of many such invisible activities that showcase women (and her family’s) dependency on non-timber forest resources. Such forest resources are invaluable and act as safety nets for household.

Value-chain of palm fronds to benefit women Altaire Cambata

Markets interweave women’s role in selling forest products

People: Balinese Place: Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia Date: February, 2013

On Nusa Penida, women typically run the market stalls each morning, arriving as early as 5:00am and working until the heat becomes intolerable, around 10am. Although a lot of food is now imported from the Bali mainland, it is still possible to find non-timber forest products for sale, such as palm fronds used to weaving ceremonial baskets and offerings during important ceremonies.

However, vendors have had to restrict their attendance to the morning markets, as transportation costs and wares imported from Bali have risen in price due to increasing fuel costs. Consumers also buy less as a result. Because locally grown produce is less expensive than imported produce, it is possible that one will notice an increase demand for local forest products in near future.

Betel vine cultivation intertwine gender equity Anindita Bhattacharya

Family farming brings happiness People: Small holder family farming of Betel vine yard Place: 24 Paraganas, West Bengal, India Date: April, 2013 Institutional Affiliation: Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, India

This story is about transformation of Jhantu Paik, 40 years old, and his poor five member family by adopting the family farming approach. Jhantu used to work as a seasonal labour and earned a maximum monthly income of US$65.

With the meager saving he established a betel vine yard where his wife started equal participation in managing the yard and post-harvest of betel leaves before selling in the local market. Jhantu’s wife works hard to help him to enhance the family income besides fulfilling all social obligations. Family farming supports their livelihood and they earn almost US$1850 per year which is 2.7 times of the production cost. Together they have seen a paradigm change in their livelihood. This sustainable flow of cash makes them capable for providing quality education to their children.

Children and non-timber forest produces Bernd van der Meulen

Gender roles gets defined from the early childhood

People: Rural children in Flores Island Place: Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara), Indonesia Date: Summer 2007 Institutional affiliation: Wageningen University, Netherlands

In the summer of 2007, I was travelling in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia.

One day on the isle of Flores, archeologically known as the home of the historical hobbit, we found ourselves in a small forest village. In the centre of the village square various types of nuts and other non-timber forest produces were spread out on hand-made rattan mats and on the earth to be sorted and to sun dry. A little girl guarded them from birds and other animals but also from her boisterously playing brothers and other village boys. She looks happy enough, but one gets the impression that from early childhood onwards girls and boys are indirectly taught about their gender roles. This means household chores for girls and play for boys. The question remains whether (and how) to demystify these gender norms.

Harvesting agroforestry produce – legal or illegal Carol Colfer

forest-destroyers, squatters, and thieves?

People: men of Lubuk Kambing Place: Lubuk Kambing, Jambi, Sumatra Date: February, 2005 Institutional affiliation: CIFOR, Indonesia and Cornell University, USA

The picture shows men of Lubuk Kambing village in the province of Jambi, in eastern Sumatra, are loading logs onto a truck for sale. Although this action labels them criminals by the Indonesian government, in their view, they are simply harvesting some of the produce from their longstanding Agroforestry system. The lands they inhabit and use have, by and large, been inherited from their parents, and have been considered locally to be their own. Gradually, as time has gone by, the government (at various levels) has become more assertive about claiming its self-declared rights to these lands and to their management. This has left local people both with seriously diminished resources and with a largely undeserved reputation as forestdestroyers, squatters, and thieves.

Manual harvest of potatoes Daniel Boczniewicz

Cooperation gives good results

People: Family during potato harvest Place: Village near Wilkocin, Poland Date: August, 1995

This picture is almost twenty years old clicked of me with my family in our small farm in Poland in 1995. The picture shows my family working during autumn to harvest potatoes. This method of manually harvesting potatoes is old traditional practice. However, it is still popular in the smallholder agriculture.

Both men and women cooperate and are actively engaged. They collect potatoes and store it in the bucket, but women are most meticulous unlike men to collect the potatoes from the field. The men on the other hand often carry the bucket, once full, to the wagon. This equitable cooperation is what gives good results.

Family is the key source for managing the local resources sustainably Daniel Cruz

Indigenous knowledge is important People: : Indígenas yagua Place: Río Loretoyacu in Amazona, Colombia Date: May, 2013 Institutional affiliation: Fundacion S.I. – Science International, Colombia

Forest livelihood dependency requires comprehensive traditional knowledge.

The techniques to use the natural resources: traditional breeding techniques, hunting and fishing practices are taught by the grandparents. For Yagua indigenous communities Amazon forests use cannot be divided, it is a single integral practice. Moreover, fishing and hunting are complementary roles. It is important that knowledge to sustainably exploit forest resources for livelihoods needs can be communicated from parents to children. Thus, adaptations to environmental management persist over time. In the photo, a girl plays on the riverbank with butterflies that feed on the accumulated salt in the fishing net of his father, who along with her makes a canoe that will help him to hunt and fish to feed his family.

Wildlife and markets Daniel Cruz

The importance of exploring the role of men and women in bushmeat trade People: : Indígenas yagua Place: Caballococha in Amazonas, Perú Date: September, 2013 Institutional affiliation: Fundacion S.I. – Science International, Colombia

The term bushmeat refers to meat from wildlife (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds) hunted for food from tropical forests. Many indigenous communities in the Amazon trifrontier region of Colombia, Peru and Brazil among other tropical forest communities globally continue to depend on forest resources, including bushmeat, for their livelihoods. There is an increasing demand from mestizo communities in the Amazon region. By prohibiting, illegal commercialization has led to a disregard of their operations and the quantities of meat traded in the market. Doña Herminia is a local researcher who monitors the quantity and origin of bushmeat that comes in the marketplace of Caballococha, in Peru.

This idea has become an essential tool for making decisions by both women and men to monitor and manage the use of animals and forests.

Touch the women, touch the rock David Tarrason

From mothers to young daughters: building a strategy adapt to crisis People: Kumaoni women Place: Bageshar, Uttarakand, India Date: October, 2012 Stories: David Tarrason (1) and Federica Ravera (2) Institutional Affiliations: (1) CREAF, Spain and (2) Dept. Of Ecology, UAM, Spain

When the young girl in jeans and white T-shirt comes back from school in the afternoon, she joins the women of the village in carrying heavy baskets of cow dung to return soil fertility to the fields. Sixty-five percent of the mid-high Kumaon hills are forest-covered, and farming is largely done on the rain-fed uplands whose soils are protected from erosion by terracing. In this sensitive landscape, the women’s collaborative goal is to minimize the vulnerability of local livelihoods to environmental change.

Reproduction precedes social production.

There has been a clear recognition that ‘gender’ is relevant in community agroforestry. Managing soil fertility and forest resources, and conserving seed and knowledge exchanges are mainly women’s roles. They are assured by collaborative safety nets, ninety percent of which are run by women. These socio-cultural strategies, transmitted from mothers to young women, underlie individual and collective capacity to adapt to crisis and long-lasting change.

Carrying the conservation of natural resources David Tarrason

Women question about forest conservation with their own survival People: Quechua woman Place: Tambopata, Laria, Huancavelica, Peru Date: November, 2005 Stories: David Tarrason (1) and Federica Ravera (2) Institutional Affiliations: (1) CREAF, and (2) Dept. Of Ecology, UAM

High in the central Andes, walking breathless at 4,000 meters, where the mountains are like islands in the sky, you never feel alone. Whenever and wherever you look, a human figure is there. The most common image is that of women carrying firewood or bags of goods to be exchanged in barter markets. The remnants of Quenua (Polylepis spp) patches play a key part in the functioning of the fragmented HighAndean ecosystem, offering a foraging habitat for insectivorous birds, and providing essential goods and services for local livelihoods. Women couple the question of forest conservation with their own survival. They are the main users, managers and primary guardians of the forest remnants’ resources. Although that role has been rendered all but invisible by conservationists and policy-makers, the women themselves are conscious of their role as protectors of the environment.

Barter markets and resilience at the margins David Tarrason

Andean women define the social rules that govern the local market People: Quechua woman Place: Laria, Huancavelica, Peru Date: June, 2005 Stories: David Tarrason (1) and Federica Ravera (2) Institutional Affiliations: (1) CREAF, Spain and (2) Dept. Of Ecology, UAM, Spain

How do the markets work for these Andean women at the margins? Since development policies encouraged them to produce cash crops and to supply urban markets, Andean farmers have been exposed to oscillations in demand and prices and have themselves helped to increase the fragility of mountain environment they depend on. In response, the local barter markets in the different agro-ecological zones have reorganized, bringing economically and ecologically sound options into the local food system. Highland Puna farmers trade their surplus (meat and wool) in exchange for Andean crops from Suni or maize from Quechua zones. Women are mainly in charge of the barter markets, controlling diversity of diet and nutritional security. They also define the social rules that govern these markets, thus helping to sustain the social reproduction. Indeed, solidarity towards old women who cannot produce and farmers who have lost their produce is a criterion for measurement.

Khejri the life tree for human and livestock in arid zone Dheeraj Singh (along with M.K Chaudhary and M.M Roy)

Men and women actively manage agroforestry system People: Mr. Madho Singh Place: Marwar Junction, Rajasthan, India Date:June, 2014 Stories: Dheeraj Singh, M.K. Chaudhary and M.M. Roy Institutional Affiliation: CAZRI, India

Khejri (Prosopis cineraria) a pillar stone of traditional agroforestry system is the key interface between rainfed agriculture, silviculture and pastoralism in western Rajasthan. This versatile multipurpose tree provides, fuel wood, thorny twigs as fencing materials, medicinal products and various other specific secondary products (food, crafts, etc.). The tree is drought resistant due to its long tap root system; hence other crops can easily be taken under this tree without any adverse effects. It is therefore, an appropriate low competitive species of a subsistence system developed in low rainfall areas.

In Rajasthan, trees are propagated in a scattered way (sometimes on boundaries) in association with cereals, pulses and grasses at a density of 5 to 80 trees per hectare. The monetary returns pooled over years also indicate higher returns from khejri based agrosilvicultural system compared to mono-cropping. The tree grows naturally but its looping is primarily done by men while all other operations are responsibility of the rural women.

Zamala – exchange of labour in small-farms Dina Najjar

Exchange of labour – customary form of equitable contribution by men and women People: Egyptian rural men and women Place: Northern Egypt Date: May 2014 Institutional Affiliation: ICARDA, Jordan

In Kafr El Sheikh Province of Egypt, the majority of middle class men and women in the same community engage in shared labour, called zamala. Zamala means exchange of labour wherein men and women work collectively on each other’s small farms to save labour and money. Though this is a traditional practice, but it continues to find its relevance even today. This collective activity and exchange of labour helps in promoting mutual aid in livelihood and social relations, and networking and communication within the community.

A girl under a Brazil nut tree Eugenio Fernández Vázquez

Certification will help chestnut collecting girls and boys to go to school People: Forest dependent communities Place: Madre de dios, Peru Date: February, 2012 Institutional Affiliation: Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible

Above the dark green canopy separating earth from the heaven appears the largest of the trees in the Amazonian rainforests.

Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is a South American tree reaching 50 metre (160 feet) tall with a trunk of one to two meters in diameter. The fruit resembles a coconut in size and weights about two kilograms (4.4 lb) and has a hard, woody shell, which contains about eight to 24 triangular seeds long (the Brazil nuts).

The fruit takes about 15 months to mature and is commonly known as chestnuts/ castanhas. The fruits are collected from the ground often by migrant workers known as castanheiros. The family of this girl child is one among many such families in the region whose livelihood is dependent on fruit collection. Collecting fruits is a risky activity because the heavy weight fruit fall from 50 metre high canopy at immense velocity that can cause serious injury. The helmet that this girl child is wearing has a logo of ‘ASCART’, an organization for whom this family works. The organization certifies their collection as fair and organic. It aims to pay better wage to the adults so that children can go to school instead of risking their life collecting Brazil nut fruits.

My name is Yenki. I can dance and climb the trees Ewa Hermanowicz/ Bioversity International

Vulnerable ethnic minorities making the most of forest resources People: Siddhi ethnic group Place: Kanchigadde-Kalgadde, Western Ghats, India Date: May, 2014 Institutional affiliation: Bioversity International Link to the film ‘Climbing to survive’ http://youtube/1WgPz09vZXU

Women are important collectors, users and managers of wild fruit trees in Kanchigadde-Kalgadde village, Western Ghats, India. This accounts especially for the ethnic group of Siddhis, having less farm land and depending more on collection for their livelihoods. Yet, despite their invaluable knowledge and skills, they are often excluded from the village forest committees. The group started to produce a juice from the wild fruits of Kokum (Garcinia indica), now sold in the nearby town as a highly valued natural product. Since she was a child, Yenki Siddhi, 75, climbed the trees in nearby forests to collect wild fruits and honey.

The income obtained through sales of these products allowed her to buy food for her seven children which she otherwise couldn’t have afforded with the very low wage earned by other labour activities.

Double marginalization Gema Margarita Lorío López

Lack of land tenure and access rights to forests marginalizes men and women People: Peasant communities of Nicaragua Place: Ocotal, Nicaragua Date: May, 2014

Silvia and Ramon, walk slowly moving their firewood loaded on a mule. This way of collecting firewood has been done for over 10 years. In the Mozonte region at north of the country the majority of Nicaraguan peasants subsist on fuel wood to sell at local businesses such as tortilla bakeries or grocery store. However in the town of Ocotal municipality and head of Nueva Segovia, the private property owner has filed lawsuits against families with land tenure and those depended on extracting firewood.

This leads to double marginalization of peasant men and women living “illegally” on land and forest. It not only features the forest sector crisis, but deterioration of the quality of life of people.

Forest guards Hector Guererer

Armed rebellion- community ready to defend their forests

People: Community of Cheran Place: Michoacan state, Mexico Date: February, 2014

Two armed members of the citizens’ self-protection police patrol are travelling through the forest in their jeep. These men are from indigenous Purepecha community of Cheran in the western state of Michoacan about 200 miles from Mexico City. These armed groups have emerged in this community to defend the forests that were being devastated by the illegal loggers. The residents of Cheran rose up in an armed rebellion when authorities failed to support. So the residents took justice in their own hands and kicked out the illegal loggers from their land that is isolated in the middle of rainy, cold Michoacan forest. Since then, they’ve implemented self-governance based on traditional forest governance.

The donkey can’t walk anymore!

Héctor Leonardo Martínez-Torres

Growing demand for firewood has an impact on forests and people People: Ejido de la mesa Place: México Date: April, 2014 Institutional Affiliation: UNAM, Mexico

Driving down on a country road in Mexico, I met this woman who was unloading her donkey carrying heavy firewood. After a full day of work, walking into the woods and carrying the firewood, the donkey got tired and decided to lie down in the middle of the road. After several attempts the lady failed to make the donkey work.

In Mexico 18 million people depend solely on firewood for cooking. About 80% of the firewood is obtained by collecting from the forest and many times it is women who carry this heavy work.

Golden seeds Icaro Cooke Vieira

Cacao seeds- growing hopes for better livelihood and gender equity People: : community of Nova Esperança Place: Mato Grosso, Brazil Date: June, 2014

The smallholder farmer, Luizão from the community of Nova Esperança in northwestern Mato Grosso, Brazil, demonstrates his cacao seeds, which are known as “gold” due to the high profits gained from this plant in his 24-year-old agroforestry system. His pioneer agroforestry systems have played an important role in the local market. Luizão keeps in mind his dream of becoming a biologist and the need to finance the education of his four children through the richness of the forest. Cacao seeds are not only hope of economic development, but for improving livelihood and gender equity.

Tempting mangoes Maria Francesca

Empowering women could also be a strategic business move People: women from Bataan region Place: Bataan, Philippines Date: February, 2013

This photo was taken last February 2013 during the harvest season in a mango farm in Bataan, Philippines. Photo captured these women (whom I was able to identify by their first names as Nikka, Tess, and Len) having a cheerful conversation while segregating newly picked mango fruits. Given that this farm is a big land, managing the actual harvesting was a crucial task. Men do the reaping and women are tasked to do the filtering of high quality mangoes from rejects. Whilst it has been a norm that agriculture related jobs are for men, according to the mango farm owner, Virginia, she believes that it can be a shared work. She believes that women are known to be more particular, keener with details, and have better management skills. Virginia knows that employing more women is a strategic business move to help increase productivity and sales.

She also reiterated that hiring these women to work with men would make them more feel empowered and valued.

Argan tree Mohammed Taleb

Extracting argan oil in traditional way is often done by women People: Women of Essaouira region Place: South West Morocco Date: May, 2006

Argan tree is endemic to Morocco where it constitutes the second forest ecosystem after the holm oak. Its area is about 870.000 ha, which represents 7% of the Moroccan forest resources.

Argania spinosa tree is the mainstay of the local economy through multiple products. Argan oil represents the most important product with 32,000 ton peryear of argan oil. The extraction of argan oil is either done traditionally or in a modern way. In most cases the oil extraction is traditional by the women in their free time do this. Traditionally, the fruits are eaten by cattle, after digestion of the pericarp, the nuclei are excreted recovered. But now, the berries are picked perch, then dried in the sun and they are carefully shelled their pulp. These will be retained for animal feed and the nucleus of fruit containing oleaginous almond used in the preparation of argan oil.

Bushmeat traders Nathalie van Vliet

Bushmeat is a lucrative business, but requires excellent social network People: Francoise (FanFan) Place: Makokou (OgoouĂŠ Ivindo, Gabon Date: January, 2014

This picture shows a woman that works at the market of Makokou, Gabon, selling bushmeat. Her name is Francoise (FanFan). In the picture, FanFan is cutting a fresh bushpig that will be sold in her stall at the market place. Women in Gabon are key stakeholders in the bushmeat market chain. They often provide the inputs (cartridges, food etc) and maintain close relations with a network of hunters and transporters that provide them with bushmeat. They are often well known from local authorities with whom they also need to maintain good ties in order to avoid decommission.

Selling bushmeat is a lucrative business, but becoming a bushmeat trader requires an excellent social network given the illegality of the trade.

The bread for living Noemie Krauer

It takes four hours to collect firewood that is more than time to bake the bread People: Gulichera, a resident of Proven village Place: Proven, Tajikistan Date: March, 2014

Gulichera is a 46 year old woman living in Porven, a remote mountain village in north-western Tajikistan. Like the majority of villages in Tajikistan, in Porven paid jobs are rare and the standard of living is low.

Daily essentials are exorbitant, especially fuel for heating and preparing the bread.

Consequently, women regularly go to the forests to illegally collect timber.

For each load of wood transported on her back Gulichera spends at least four hours walking as the forests around Porven are far away and the hills steep and sometimes inaccessible. Women also use the opportunity to collect herbs, nuts and fruits. In this context, a pilot project on adaptation to climate change through sustainable forest management activities are developed supporting the rehabilitation and sustainable management of mountain forests. The aim is to provide women like Gulichera with access to firewood sources sustainably grown near to the village.

Matter of survival Syed Ajijur Rahman

Collecting firewood pose big risk for women and girls People: forest dependent community in Bangladesh Place: Eastern Bangladesh Date: October, 2013 Institutional Affiliation: University of Copenhagen, and Bangor University

Local people in the Eastern part of Bangladesh are living in permanent villages and mainly depending on smallscale agriculture. However, it is not sufficient to maintain their livelihoods.

Thus, they rely on nearby forests for firewood and other non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Besides indoor house works, women are involved in collecting firewood from the forest. Collecting firewood alone is a big risk for women due to frequent incidence of rape, assault, abduction, and even death.

Equal rights matters?

Syed Ajijur Rahman

Women are deprived of equal rights People: Woman Place: Eastern Bangladesh Date: October, 2013 Institutional Affiliation: University of Copenhagen, and Bangor University

Alike other rural areas of Bangladesh, in Chittagong Hill Tracts located in the Eastern part of the country, women often carry more burdens than male counterparts by involving themselves in both indoor and outdoor house works. However, women are neglected from their equal rights.

Prejudice, illiteracy, and some religious dogma put them in such negligence within their socio-cultural structure.

Grasslands, pastoralists and cattle Rutuja Patil

The relation between Maldhari women, cattle and land is strong and powerful People: Maldharis- nomadic pastoralists Place: Kutch, Gujarat, India Date: February, 2014

Declared as the protected forest almost half a century ago, Banni grasslands is one of the biggest grasslands in Asia. The Maldharis, owner of the cattle which is their wealth, is the tribal community that has been grazing mainly buffaloes that supply tons of milk to the State of Gujarat every day.

The endless land sets no border for the cattle to graze and live. The woman greets the buffaloes in the afternoon sun as they return after spending the night in the forest. They know their land and the way back home. In her community, only the women are allowed to milk the buffaloes.

The love that the three share- the Maldharis, cattle and the land is so powerful and beautiful and many a times the strength of this relationship goes unnoticed as we sip our morning tea made from the milk of this relationship.

Fish for food security Rutuja Patil

Fish pond brings source of happiness!

People: Malkangiri Villagers Place: Malkangiri, Odisha, India Date: April, 2014

One of the most untouched by development Malkangiri region in Odisha is completely a rain fed area. Along with rain fed agriculture the non-governmental organizations in Malkangiri have helped the local smallholder farmers to establish fishing. Fish from community fish pond has become an alternate source of income to enhance food security for each family of Malkangiri region. As a result of good rainfall many ponds have been formed. Around each pond three to five families reside wherein they fish together.

As fishing can be expensive, families collaborate to fish. When they fish, each member of the family participates at least by crowding around the pond and cheering their neighbours as they pull the hefty net across the water and join the happiness of accomplishment.

In some places only men fish and in others only women do the hard work of fishing while their men just drink.

Camel herder’s challenge Rutuja Patil

No market for camel milk makes the livelihood of camel herders difficult People: Maldhari Boy (Camel Herder) Place: Kutch, Gujarat, India Date: February, 2014

In the Kutch landscape there are many camel herders. The boy in this photo wakes up at around 5 a.m. before sunrise along with his father to milk the camels. Normal practice among most nomadic tribe is to milk their camels in the early morning. After sunrise the camels are taken to grazing. Camels are very reliable milk produces during dry seasons and drought years. At such times camel milk contributes up to half of the nutrient intake of the pastoralist men and women in Kutch. Though camel milk has higher nutrient values than any other milk and is recommended for diabetic patients there is still not enough market for it. The boy and his family find it difficult to survive and the camels are now a big burden to them due to depletion of resources. The boy loves all his camels but his family see no hope for camel milk market. Like this family many families might abandon their camels in the wild in near future due to lack of resources.

Living with the forest and river Satabdi Datta

Women and children take every risk to depend on forest resources People: Women of Dhupjhora village, Jalpaiguri district Place: Dhupjhora, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India Date: December, 2013 Institutional Affiliation: Jadavpur Univeristy, India

Dhupjhora is located in the South Gorumara Forest Range of Jalpaiguri. It is adjacent to the tea gardens and the meandering Murti River. Women and children from local village communities collect forest products from the Gorumara national park. Even though there are rapid tourist activities almost throughout the year, the local tribal communities are exposed to hardship for survival. Women and children from the communities collect forest products putting themselves at risk from the wildlife to make ends meet. Existing with the forest and wildlife has become too common to the tribal communities.

Sweet for survival Satabdi Datta

Honey collection is not a sweet business

People: Mowal people of Sunderbans Place: Sundarbans, West Bengal, India Date: December, 2011 Institutional Affiliation: Jadavpur Univeristy, India

The people who live in the villages of Sundarban islands are often engaged in honey collections, cutting woods and gollpata, fishing, catching crabs and shrimps and collecting snails in the mangrove forest and river. Locals use most of these collections for their daily consumption and some for selling in the local market. Among all these communities, ‘mowals’ are the most vulnerable groups. This group of people needs to face many challenges from the inception to the end of their journey towards honey collection. In the photograph a woman is seen to travel on a small country boat along with her husband to collect forest product. The couple faces lots of challenges including lack of organized honey market, no bank loan facilities and many other obstacles making their honey collection activity a bitter truth of their life.

In search for water Sudipto Das

Water scarcity hits everyone alike

People: Forest villagers Place: Bagora, West Bengal, India Date: April, 2014 Institutional affiliation: The Times of India, India

A boy fetches water in a dried up pond during summer in forest area of Gorumara Wildlife sanctuary, India. The pond is the only source of drinking water of Bagora village where 20 families live adjacent to the sanctuary. The photo says it all about how water scarcity hits everyone – men, women and children – alike.

High tea time Sudipto Das

Unlike men, women are at a disadvantage in the unorganized labour sector People: Local Women Workers Place: Makaibari, West Bengal, India Date: May, 2014 Institutional affiliation: The Times of India, India

Local village women busy in plucking tea leaves at Makaibari tea estate in Darjeeling District, India. The tea, unarguably one of the world’s best, that this garden has ever produced. The rest is about tigers, leopards, hornbills and many rare species of flora and fauna. That’s because just 550 acres of Makaibari’s 1513 acres is under tea plantation; the remaining 1,023 acres is sub-tropical woodlands that are a sanctuary for wildlife. That makes Makaibari estate the only agroforestry in the world where the crop area is a fraction of the estate’s total area. Preserving the forests is not an easy job. The estate has 15 forest rangers patrolling the forest to ward off human intruders. The activity of plucking tea leaves is tedious job. Unlike men, women are at a disadvantage in the unorganized labour sector

Eating on leaf plates Sudipto Das

Small business of Sal leaf plate making by tribal women

People: Tribal women of Purulia village Place: West Bengal, India Date: November, 2013 Institutional affiliation: The Times of India, India

Women in a remote tribal village at forest area of Purulia in Ayodha are actively making Sal (Shorea robusta) leaf plates.

The dry leaves of Sal are used as raw material for production of leaf plates.

In this photo women are busy stitching the leaves to make leaf plates. Sal leaves are non-timber forest produce and are collected from the forest by tribal women. The leaf plates are in huge demand in the local market. Value chain analysis shows that major share of profit does not come to the collectors.

Early harvest Tuti Herawati

Fair division of labour between husband and wife is mutually agreed People: Ibu Euis and Pak Dadang Place: Ciamis, West Java, Indonesia Date: August 2012 Institutional Affiliation: CIFOR and FORDA (Ministry of Forestry), Indonesia

Ibu Euis and Pak Dadang decided to immediately harvest, although the age of the rice was barely 100 days. Clumps of rice are still green, but they decided to harvest it anyways. They do this so that the first rice crop is not damaged by rodents and other animals. Their paddy field is located at the boundary of agricultural land and forests, which make their rice acreage frequently visited by wild boar. With her husband, Mrs. Euis shed grains of rice with rice clumps banged on a simple tool made of bamboo. They hire a worker to help them cut rice and other heavy jobs. Wet rice planting activity is the main income source of the family of Dadang and Euis. They do a fair division of labour and often mutually agreed. They are both happy particularly when they can have a plentiful harvest. The purpose of both of them is earning enough to cover their needs of everyday family life.

Gendered damar resins Tuti Herawati

Men collect resins while women clean and grade the resins People: Ibu Nur Alifin Place: Lampung District, Lampung Province, Indonesia Date: January,, 2013 Institutional Affiliation: CIFOR and FORDA (Ministry of Forestry), Indonesia

A woman is sorting Damar resins. The gums and resins are often part of forest produce and it contributes to the local economy and to rural livelihoods. Gums and resins are collected, cleaned, sorted and graded separately into different quality classes using traditional labour intensive techniques. The merchant collectors do the grading to obtain a higher selling price. Sorting of gums and resins activities are often done by women. Women do this work after completing their daily household tasks.

They work for half a day and receive relatively cheap wage. The first thing done in sorting resins is winnowing.

The goal is to separate the resin from the wood chips. Furthermore, the sap is sieved to obtain the size of the most delicate. This job requires persistence for sorting the granular resins. Therefore, women are preferred over men.

Stone mortar Tuti Herawati

A leisure activity of making mortar contributes towards household savings People: Women of Pahmongan village Place: Lampung Barat District, Lampung Province, Indonesia Date: January, 2013 Institutional Affiliation: CIFOR and FORDA (Ministry of Forestry), Indonesia

These women in the picture are making mortar, kitchen utensils, carved out of smooth and non-porous stone. The material should be solid, so that small bits of the mortar do not get mixed in with the ingredients such as making chili or spice paste. This activity is carried out at the edge of the forests and an activity to fill the time while their men are tapping the sap resins from forests. Using an ax and makeshift equipment, irregular stones are formed into oval or circular hollows. Making a mortar is an easy job, but demands skills to create shapes and ability to smoothen the surface of the stone. One of the fastest pieces of mortar is completed within 2 to 3 months.

Generally women don’t sell these mortars, but use it in their own homes. Although not productive, but at least making the mortar event create a strategy to save the cost of household expenditure.

Women in apiculture in African Savannah forests Verina Ingram

Apiculture changing traditional gender roles People: Aminatou Hamidou Place: Doubbal, Adamaoua region, Cameroon Date: April, 2009 Institutional Affiliation: CIFOR, Indonesia and Wageningen UR, Netherlands

Aminatou is a bright, inspiring and courageous woman, a mother of four children, bringing them up alone and supporting her sick mother and five siblings. She is a seamstress, and also until recently, the controller of quality and organic certification for Guiding Hope, a sustainable apiculture company. Her literacy, inquiring mind, and ability to communicate with people of all ages, sex, and religions, have meant that Aminatou plays a vital role in apiculture, unusual for women in this traditional and largely Muslim remote savannah forest region. Here she is checking the quality of honey sold by beekeepers to Guiding Hope. Here she uses a hydrometer to check moisture content. If it doesn’t meet the companies’ standard, she informs the beekeepers how to achieve this: by harvesting only ripe honeycombs. Being literate, she also registers their sales, aiding them to receive higher than market prices for their certified organic, fair trade honey.

Livelihood and natural resources Y. Kiki Nchanji

Men and women benefit with increase demand for nontimber forest produce

People: Baka woman and son Place: Nkolbikon village, Cameroon Date: June, 2013

The difference in roles especially for women in the Cameroonian society has greatly evolved. During focus group discussions carried out by the “Beyond Timber Project’s Gender team” in PetitPol village in Cameroon, TONGO Boniface, a Bantou native from the village said “things are improving for the best for the rural woman”. Tongo claims activities such as Non timber forest products (NTFPs) and agriculture produce sales rural woman provides her with daily income to sustain her family.

He explains this is so because, “in the past, few men/women were involved in the gathering of NTFPs and agriculture produce as a means to raise income.

Rather; it was for domestic use only.

But with the increase in market value and demand for these products, the number and dependence of these women/even men on natural resources for their livelihood is increasing daily.

Gender Equity CIAT is committed to integrating gender in research-for-development. This photo and story book is led by CIAT with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry integrating Gender.

Further information visit our webpage at http://ciat.cgiar.org/gender-equity or write an e-mail at ftagenderphoto@gmail.com

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is a member of CGIAR Consortium. The Center’s mission is to reduce hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture. CIAT has its headquarter near Cali, Colombia, with regional offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Hanoi, Vietnam.

Center Scientists work in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and five in Southeast Asia. Their collaborative efforts in these regions have generated important research achievements with substantial development impact. CIAT’s work contributes importantly to CGIAR Research Programs, which address the major agricultural challenges of our time.

CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources. It is carried out by the 15 centers who are members of the CGIAR Consortium in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector.

CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) is a collaborative program that aims to enhance the management and use of forests, agroforestry and tree genetic resources across the landscape from forests to farms. CIFOR leads the FTA in partnership with Bioversity International, CIRAD, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF).

Acknowledgements This book is a collective effort and credit goes to all of you. We would like to thank the CGIAR Research Program Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) for funding support. Sincere thanks goes to FTA’s Gender Integration Team including Ana Maria, Bimbika Bassnet, Delia Catacutan, Esther Mwangi, Farhat Naz, Margaret Kroma, and Robert Nasi. Kind support received from Jacqui Ashby, Carol Colfer, Bernd van der Meulen, Andy Jarvis, Carolina Navarate, Erika E.M. Echeverry, Gideon Suharyanto, Gisella Cruz, Glenn Hyman, Jennifer Twyman, Kayte Meola, and Ruben Echeverria is well appreciated. Thanks to the Communication Unit of CIAT and CIFOR, Indonesia for technical support.

Thanks to Savyasachi, communication student intern with FTA-Gender at CIAT, for his brilliant work in designing and layout of this book, and initiating the idea of Gender theme postcards. Thank you all for directly and indirectly participating in the international photo and story competition on ‘Forests-Agriculture through a Gender Lens’ and helping in its success.