UNCCD COP12: Gender Responsive Forest Landscape Restoration
Today more than 1.6 billion people in the world rely heavily on forest resources for their livelihoods. Forests provide us with clean water, regulates climate and protects biodiversity as well as it is source of income, fuel and food. Fifty percent of these 1.6 billion people are women. Forest land degradation will impact men and women in different ways. Women are fundamental players in rehabilitating and restoring forest degraded lands and mainstreaming gender is key in land restoration.
Currently, experts are convening at the 12th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ankara, Turkey, to discuss solutions to the issues of desertification, land degradation and drought which are plaguing many areas of the world. On Gender Day at the meeting the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) tool for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) developed by IUCN’s Global Forest and Climate Change Programme was presented. ROAM helps identify, analyze and map the areas with potential to restore and this identification can be done at different scales but also it should be done in a way to balance the local needs, national and global priorities. This process also identifies the main restoration strategies to implement. Recently ROAM has been reviewed to be a gender-responsive tool, and a series of activities have been included in the methodology in order to ensure gender equality during implementation.
FLR is a process that aims to regain ecological integrity and enhance human wellbeing in deforested or degraded forest landscapes. The FLR process involves and brings people together to restore the function and productivity of degraded forest lands through a variety of place-based interventions, including new tree plantings, managed natural regeneration, or improved land management. FLR relies on active stakeholder engagement in the process and can accommodate a mosaic of different land uses, including agriculture, agroforestry, protected wildlife reserves, regenerated forests, managed plantations, and riverside plantings to protect waterways, among others. Gender equality is a key component to successful implementation of FLR.
Click here to read the Concept Note.
Click here to view the tentative programme.
Click here to see a video about ROAM.