Women in the plant world: The significance of women and gender bias for biodiversity conservation

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.