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A New Report Reveals Climate Change Is Increasing Gender-Based Violence

Climate breakdown and the global crisis of environmental degradation are increasing violence against women and girls, while gender-based exploitation is in turn hampering our ability to tackle the crises, a major report has concluded.

Climate breakdown 'is increasing violence against women'

Climate breakdown and the global crisis of environmental degradation are increasing violence against women and girls, while gender-based exploitation is in turn hampering our ability to tackle the crises, a major report has concluded.

'You Need To Act Now': Meet 4 Girls Working To Save The Warming World

A teenage girl, Greta Thunberg, has become the world-famous face of the climate strike movement. But she's far from alone: Thunberg has helped rally and inspire others — especially girls.

She started climbing trees as a kid. Then this ecologist helped create scientist Barbie.

Nalini Nadkarni didn’t play with Barbies as a girl. She was too busy climbing the maple trees in her front yard in Bethesda, Md.The forest ecologist might seem an unlikely person to help design and promote Barbie dolls. But over the past six months, she has been inspiring girls worldwide to play ...

Reversing Climate Change with a Feminine Response

The UK-based charity, TreeSisters‘ feminine response to climate change hopes to shift humanity’s identity from a consumer to a restorer species, calling for collective responsibility and planetary restoration through a reforestation revolution. It nurtures ordinary women to do extraordinary things.

African women scientists start taking their rightful place in climate research

As climate change threatens harvests, the lack of researchers, particularly female researchers, is limiting Africa’s ability to cope with the crisis. Bulawayo — As a child, Kenyan meteorologist Saumu Shaka helped out on her parents’ small farm growing maize and pigeon pea — and learned how the w ...

How Nepal benefits when women become active in water management

Humanitarian engineering student Elia Hauge discovers that a changing demographic in Nepal has led to more women taking on active roles in managing water.

5 ways climate change affects women and girls

This Christmas, we are shining the spotlight on some of the dangers that women and girls face when disasters strike. Hear directly from the women and girls who are bearing the brunt of crises around the world.

Women from the Xingu Territory unite against threats from Bolsonaro administration

“We don’t think about selling wood or any part of the Earth to get money. We have so many ways to support ourselves that we don’t need to destroy anything.” This declaration came from Anna Terra Yawalapiti in her speech at the opening ceremony of the first summit of the women of the Xingu Indige ...

ASEAN sharpens focus on gender in biodiversity conservation

Factoring in gender roles and relations in policymaking is crucial in the success of biodiversity conservation efforts, experts in a regional training workshop conducted here said.

Regional Training Workshop to Build Understanding and Capacity on Gender and Biodiversity Issues in South-East Asia

9 - 13 December 2019, Manila, Philippines

Vegetable gardens bring veritable gains for women in climate-struck Cambodia

On the road winding into Chreng village in Cambodia’s Pursat province, a group of boys are playing volleyball on an arid plot of land as villagers watch and cheer

A new guide now available, Addressing Gender Issues and Actions in Biodiversity Objectives, provides biodiversity professionals concrete ideas and actions for progress in their work towards achieving gender and biodiversity objectives, goals and targets.

Climate Change Is Brutal for Everyone, but Worse for Women

The climate crisis is so epic, so vicious, so wide-reaching, that at this point there are few aspects of the human experience it isn’t transforming.

Survey on Progress in Implementation of the 2015-2020 Gender Plan of Action

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/JS/TMC/VA/88505 (2019-106)
To: CBD National Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points, relevant organizations

Women, wildlife and the workings of the CBD

One key decision to be taken over the next two weeks at the UN Biodiversity conference is whether to adopt new guidance on sustainable wildlife management. These are practices that sustain populations and habitats of wildlife while simultaneously supporting people’s livelihoods – from providing ...

Educating Girls May Be Nigeria's Best Defense Against Climate Change

The call-and-response is enthusiastic, rising above the sound of a fan whirring furiously in the corner of the room. About 50 women stand in a circle around the song leader, who pounds the air with an invisible hammer. When she gets to the second verse—"I will hammer with two hammers!"—she pumps ...

Rural women are an indisputable force behind efforts to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity all over the world, and as such they are critical players in building climate resilience.

Statement by Dr. Cristiana Pașca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the International Day of Rural Women 15 October 2019

Reminder and Extension of Deadline: Call for the nomination of participants for the regional training workshop to build understanding and capacity on gender-biodiversity issues in South East Asia, 9-13 December 2019 - Manila, Philippines

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/JS/TMC/VA/88336 (2019-087)
To: CBD National Focal Points and SBSTTA Focal Points in: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, as well as relevant organizations

Call for the nomination of participants for the regional training workshop to build understanding and capacity on gender-biodiversity issues in South East Asia, 9-13 December 2019 – Manila, Philippines

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/JS/TMC/VA/88336 (2019-080)
To: CBD National Focal Points and SBSTTA Focal Points in: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, as well as relevant organizations

Breaking news: women have been saving our world long before you knew it

We’re past the time for the banal rhetoric of shattered glass ceilings. My patience has worn thin on vapid compliments and insipid tokenisms.

Women Pastoralists Feel Heat of Climate Change

NAIROBI, Aug 14 2019 (IPS) - For many people, climate change is about shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels, longer and more intense heatwaves, and other extreme and unpredictable weather patterns.

Agriculture's secret weapon: empowering women

Women farmers face the brunt of the threat posed by climate change, yet they may hold the key to helping limit its fallout, according to a landmark UN report to be released this week.

Amplify: Involving women in climate-change mitigation isn’t only good policy – it’s good for the planet

Living in a North American bubble of privilege, I was recently gobsmacked by a fact that anyone who works in or with the developing world has long known is true.

Sweeping the Bush, protecting the land - The women quashing poaching

The black mamba is the most venomous snake in sub-Saharan Africa.

Jamaican women tackle the climate crisis on all sides

Globally, startling changes in the environment disproportionately affect women in developing countries, largely because of their lower economic and social status. In Jamaica, women head about 46 percent of households and bear the brunt of responsibility for shelter, water, and food security.

Turning the tide: Empowering women to protect our oceans, future

Billions of people around the world depend on the fresh food and livelihoods provided by healthy oceans. In fisheries, one in two seafood workers is a woman.

Promoting gender equality a ‘crucial contribution’ in effort to restore, protect our planet’s oceans

“We need to empower each and every citizen to take care of the ocean and enable all women to play transformative and ambitious roles in understanding, exploring, protecting and sustainably managing our ocean”, said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, pointing out that this year’s “specia ...

Message from the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Dr. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, on the occasion of the World Oceans Day, 8 June 2019: “Gender and the Ocean”.

Message from the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Dr. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, on the occasion of the World Oceans Day, 8 June 2019: “Gender and the Ocean”

Saving a forest, saving livelihoods

Twenty years after a super cyclone ripped Odisha apart, a women’s group from a village recalls how it protected crops by reviving a lost forest

Expert Workshop to Develop Recommendations for Possible Gender Elements in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

11 - 12 April 2019, New York, United States of America

Seasons of the witch: as women we nurture the riches of earth, food and health

The correlation of the feminine to nature, repressive for so long, can be a source of power. In the past few months I have started putting down roots. It’s a cliche but it’s literally what I’m doing. I spend my weekends transforming the tired old lawn into garden beds, layering woodchips, straw ...

In Ethiopia, women and faith drive effort to restore biodiversity

In a tiny home not far from the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, 80-year-old Aragash Boka finally rests from a long day’s work carrying an awkward, heavy load. Boka lives and works in a corner of the world where, for the most part, fuelwood has remained important to daily life for centuries.

Africa: Why the World Needs an African Ecofeminist Future

Orthodox economic models have failed us all, but women across Africa are resisting them and coming up with visionary alternatives. We need an "African ecofeminist future". And by we, I don't just mean Africa, I mean everyone.

In protecting their forests, these women transformed their futures

Had it not been for the women of the Roro tribe, things might look bleaker in their lush corner of Papua New Guinea.Set upon by companies unsustainably extracting the fish and timber that provide the indigenous group’s livelihoods and food security, the Roro saw an already difficult existence be ...

Girls’ Love of Science Takes Root in Rural Colombia

In an isolated part of Colombia better known for rice, pineapples, and paramilitaries, something else is taking root: the next generation of female scientists. In 2016, Colombia’s government signed a peace treaty with the FARC guerilla group to bring an end to the country’s 50-year civil conflic ...

Pioneering naturalists: the woman who linked caterpillars to butterflies

Most school kids can describe in detail the life cycle of butterflies: eggs hatch into caterpillars, caterpillars turn into cocoons and cocoons hatch. This seemingly basic bit of biology was once hotly debated. It was a pioneering naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian, whose meticulous observations c ...

Gender equality: goal to achieve?

The social, cultural, and power structure around the world has not provided the same privileges to women as compared to men. These persistent differences eventually create more gaps. Gender equality is when both men and women have equal rights, opportunities, accessibility of resources and parti ...

Women custodians of biodiversity hold key to food security

A UN report on the state of world biodiversity for food and agriculture links rising food insecurity and chronic hunger to threatened habitats and ecosystems. But traditional female stewards of biodiversity offer hope.

Call for the nomination of participants for the expert workshop to develop recommendations for possible gender elements in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, 11-12 April 2019 - New York City, United States of America

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/JS/TMC/VA/87941 (2019-020)
To: CBD National Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol National Focal Points, ABS National Focal Points, relevant organizations

Weaving is giving Indian women hope in the face of climate change

In recent months, 30-year-old Niru Sonowal and a dozen other women from her northeast Indian village have trekked on foot for miles every day in search of work.

Gender equality vital part of forest-based climate action, says CIFOR scientist at COP24

Gender-blind climate action risks jeopardizing efficiency and long-term sustainability

System change means dismantling patriarchy

Our societies have mostly been organised to maximise capitalist accumulation for the benefit and privilege of elites and corporations. In the parallel exploitation of women and nature, both are seen as infinite and elastic resources – free, readily available, to be appropriated without resistance.

International Youth Day 2018 (http://www.un.org/en/events/youthday/events.shtml)

12 August 2018, New York, United States of America

Capacity-building Workshop on Gender Mainstreaming for Convention Delegates

1 - 2 July 2018, Montreal, Canada

Call for the nomination of participants for the capacity-building workshop on gender mainstreaming in processes under the Convention – training for Convention delegates, 30 June - 1 July 2018 – Montreal, Canada

Reference: SCBD/MCO/AF/NP/TM/87339 (2018-041)
To: CBD National Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points, United Nations organizations, non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, indigenous peoples and local communities’ organizations, educational organizations

For this year’s International Women’s Day, I join my voice to the call to action to empower women in all settings, rural and urban, and to draw inspiration from the activists working to achieve women’s rights and gender equality.

Message of the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Dr. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2018