Browsing by Author "Howard, P."

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    The major importance of 'minor' resources: Women and plant biodiversity
    Howard, P. (London, UK: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2003)
    Due to women's assigned tasks and roles, women have developed specific knowledge of plants. Women are plant breeders, seed custodian, and gather plants for medicinal, culinary, fuel, crafts, construction, and fodder purposes. The plant use, management, and conservation occur within the household which makes this knowledge invisible and undervalued by the outsider. This fact creates gender biases in research, and scientific knowledge, which in turn affects the impact of projects and policies. Traditional knowledge and indigenous rights to plants are not gender neutral. In order to achieve sustainable conservation of biological diversity one needs to pay greater attention to gender. It is important to recognize the role women play in transmitting traditional knowledge and practices. Also, it is important to recognize indigenous rights and women's rights to plants and land resources.
  • Women in the plant world: The significance of women and gender bias for biodiversity conservation
    Howard, P. (International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 2001)
    The author contends that there is a strong connection between plant management, plant knowledge and conservation. Because women are largely in charge of cooking, managing plants in their home gardens and communal lands, and handling post-harvest activities they have a special knowledge about plants that leads to their inclination for conservation. According to the author, research programs and development planners do not focus enough attention on women's knowledge and often assume that a small sample of men's opinions is appropriate to represent community knowledge. This error proves severely detrimental to plant management and biodiversity conservation, therefore it would be beneficial to consider gender perspectives in plant management research.