Gender equality

Gender and social norms are diverse and dynamic — and they influence people’s relationship with the environment.

Around the world, men and women use nature differently and are therefore affected in different ways when it is degraded or more effectively managed. Yet these differences are often not understood or recognized.

Conservation International is committed to advancing gender equality and ensuring that women’s perspectives and priorities are embedded into our work to achieve lasting impacts. For more than a decade, our projects have supported women's access to resources and participation in decisions about the nature they rely on.

Guided by our human rights-based approach, Conservation International aims to ensure that all people, regardless of their gender, can fully engage in and benefit from our conservation initiatives.

For more than a decade, our projects have intentionally promoted women's access to resources and their participation in decisions about the nature they and their communities rely on.

How do we do it?

Our role

We partner with communities, women leaders and women’s organizations to support women’s leadership in conservation decision-making at all levels. For example, our projects include thoughtful and culturally appropriate ways to engage women, such as by providing child care during events, including a female facilitator and conducting separate or additional meetings with women. We also promote women’s conservation leadership – for example through fellowships, peer mentoring or partnerships with local women’s groups.

The right tools and approaches vary — they rely on a solid understanding of the social and gender dynamics in which the project operates. To this end, project-specific gender analyses and workplans are becoming more common across Conservation International’s portfolio. We are also hiring staff with gender integration experience and are building the capacity of existing staff.

Conservation International also recognizes that advancing gender equality requires engaging with men to address the cultural and normative barriers that impede gender equality. For example, in Peru we worked in an Awajún Indigenous community to provide training on women’s legal rights and the prevention of sexual violence — and helped develop support systems for survivors of gender-based violence. The project engaged men from the community on how to achieve justice for survivors, among other issues.

Conservation International recognizes gender-expansive identities of people who do not identify with traditional gender roles and works to promote spaces for everyone to express their gender identity and be their authentic selves.

Select case studies

Publications