How Gender-Based Violence Affects Conservation

Content note: This article discusses gender-based violence, including domestic abuse.

We use the term “women” to include cisgender women, transgender women, femme/feminine-identifying, genderqueer and non-binary individuals.

We also acknowledge that non-binary individuals face even greater challenges than cisgender women in societies and systems structured around binary gender identities.

“Gender-based violence is rooted in inequality, and inequality is everywhere,” explains Robyn James, gender and equity director for TNC in Asia Pacific. Globally, one in three women experience some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime (this figure does not include sexual harassment). “That means GBV is everywhere, too. Conservation programs that ignore existing gender inequality and fail to understand gender and social norms in an area can worsen conditions that cause harm—especially for women and girls.”

However, elevating the role of women and increasing their decision-making power poses a challenge to existing power structures or deeply entrenched social norms—norms that most often benefit men.

“Men in my country are often not comfortable with women being in charge, earning their own money or having important roles in the community,” says Ruth Konia, country director for TNC in Papua New Guinea. “When we push women to get involved with conservation, we are challenging how things have always been done. That comes with risk.”

3 Ways Gender-Based Violence Is Linked to Conservation

Increasingly, the conservation sector is investing in research to better understand the links between gender-based violence, conservation and environmental impacts. Research and case studies from related sectors, such as humanitarian aid and development, are informing tools and resources that help conservationists on the ground mitigate and respond to GBV.

Here are some examples of links between conservation and gender-based violence and how organizations like TNC can address them.

1. Climate change makes gender-based violence worse

Impacts from climate change like drought, sea-level rise, resource scarcity and extreme weather events can have devastating impacts on communities. These burdens are frequently worse for women and girls, who are often more directly dependent on natural resources for income and caretaking responsibilities.

For example:

• In times of drought, women and girls may be forced to walk farther to collect potable water or spend longer time in water queues, increasing their exposure to sexual assault and harassment and decreasing the time they can spend studying or earning an income.
• Resource scarcity driven by climate change can increase the likelihood of sexual exploitation of women and girls, including transactional or coerced sex to provide for their families.
• In times of agriculture shocks, storms and other climate impacts, communities can lose access to productive natural resources and may not be able to meet basic needs. In some cases, families may resort to dire and inequitable practices, such as child marriage.
• Women are also more likely than men to die in many types of natural disasters—which become more frequent and intense due to climate change. In one example, 90% of deaths from the 2014 Solomon Islands flash floods were women.
  

Displacement from weather events can increase exposure to GBV in transit centers, refugee camps and shelters. In the United States, we’ve seen how back-to-back weather emergencies, compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic, create a “tipping point” for gender-based violence while also interrupting the availability of support services.

2. Gender-based violence affects conservation program design

An important part of measuring conservation impact is taking a closer look at who benefits and who bears the costs. It also means taking care to avoid unintended consequences that reinforce inequality, marginalization and harm.

“Gender mainstreaming checklists and gender quotas have helped put gender on the table—but they are insufficient on their own to really drive progress,” explains James, who has spent the last 25 years working on conservation in Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. “If we increase women’s participation in a fisheries program, but they are still forced to turn wages over to their husbands and maintain the same level of domestic chores, that doesn’t advance gender equity. It hurts it.”

Before developing project plans, conservationists should conduct a detailed gender analysis to better understand existing drivers of GBV and how natural resource use differs across genders. Gender analyses can also be developed for existing programs to refine strategies and ensure safe, equitable benefits for the whole community.

In Papua New Guinea, Konia explained that it has been important to move slowly and include men in conversations around gender equity in developing Mangrove Market Meri. “If we push too hard, women are at risk of backlash. Gender-based violence is tolerated and normalized. That’s why we’re doing trainings around gender equity with both men and women, including whole-family financial planning, alongside traditional conservation efforts.”

Maria Cristina De La Paz, a TNC watershed conservation coordinator, recalled a similar pattern in the Ecuadorian Amazon. TNC is partnering with the Pueblo Kichwa de Rukullakta (PKR) to protect freshwater biodiversity, support ecotourism, advance fisheries management and identify sustainable production alternatives.

“We first approached local women in Rukullakta to map gender roles and collect primary data around natural resource use and domestic labor—but we quickly learned just how prevalent and normalized gender-based violence is in the area,” De La Paz explained. Women were afraid to speak out due to judgment from society.

As part of the conservation initiative in PKR, TNC is providing governance support and helping the community build a constitution that regulates the management of natural resources. Initially, the team hoped to ban violence against women in the constitution. But after discussions with GBV specialists and local leaders, they realized a safer and more successful approach would be to include language that promotes gender equity more generally and a vision of safety for all, including women. It also focuses on applying Indigenous justice approaches, rather than a Western “law and order” tack.

“Gender-based violence is common and normalized. An outright ban against GBV could put women at increased risk, alienate or anger men and result in broken trust all around,” said De La Paz. “We know that laws banning gender-based violence aren’t effective on their own, especially when there is a lack of resources or support services for victims in the community.” With the support of other local organizations working in PKR, the team has also identified training opportunities on violence, family planning and women’s empowerment.

3. Environmental and conservation organizations experience gender-based violence, too

Gender-based violence is prevalent in all societies, which means it affects our own institutions and colleagues, including at The Nature Conservancy. “It’s a lot easier to point to another country’s gender gaps than to hold the mirror up to our own countries and workplaces. This is a problem everywhere—in every country and every institution. We can’t ‘other’ the issue of gender-based violence,” says James.

Staff at nonprofits that depend on philanthropy have also experienced harassment from donors, who are in a position of power. One survey showed that one in four female fundraisers has experienced sexual harassment on the job.

How to Support Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

Staff at conservation organizations should be prepared to respond to disclosure of gender-based violence in a survivor-centered, trauma-informed way.

“It’s great to see the conservation sector starting to address GBV in our programs, but we need to remember to tend to the individual person, too,” explained Meg Bresnahan, former associate director of communications and strategy for gender and equity for TNC in Asia Pacific. She is a volunteer on the National Sexual Assault Hotline and helped create guidelines on what to say when someone discloses an experience of GBV.