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.