SilvaCarbon, a US Government-funded technical capacity building program specializing in forest carbon monitoring, reported a gender imbalance in the number of men and women conducting and participating in trainings. SilvaCarbon wants to identify some of the drivers of this gender imbalance to better plan inclusive capacity building efforts. This research identifies challenges to women in entering and maintaining a career in forest carbon monitoring and collects ideas for actionable solutions to both increase the number of women and the quality of their experiences in this work.
Forty-six individuals identified as subject matter experts participated in Phase 1 of this study, representing 21 SilvaCarbon partner countries in three regions: Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Semi-structured interviews covering country context, an overview of forest carbon monitoring, and ideas for supporting increased involvement were conducted and coded for key themes. This research is unique because it provides a global perspective, identifying themes that transcend cultures and geographic borders related to challenges and solutions in gender equity in a scientific field. We present common challenges and categorize possible solutions. Results indicate that challenges come in different forms, but many stem from social expectations about the type of work women are expected to do. Broad categories of challenges include 1) career characteristics such as travel and challenging field conditions and 2) and cultural norms influencing access to education, discrimination in the workplace, and balancing expected social roles. Three levels of potential solutions at the Micro (individual), Meso (workplace), and Macro (national or international) level provide actionable options for actors at different scales to increase gender equity in forest carbon monitoring.
Phase 2 involved a deeper dive into the contexts of three partner countries, one randomly selected from each region. This resulted in 54 total interviews across Cameroon, Nepal, and Peru. Semi-structured interviews for this phase included experiences in forest carbon monitoring and discussion of gender barriers and solutions. This phase expanded on what was learned in the previous phase to identify country-specific nuances in addition to common themes across countries. For example, in Cameroon some tribes historically valued women as leaders, and gender equity in these cases would mean a return to traditional values. In Nepal, many participants discussed the existing national gender policies which they say need better implementation. The forest carbon monitoring environment in Nepal varies from the other two countries in this study by heavily involving local community forest user groups. Participants in Peru emphasized differences between the capital city, Lima, and the rural provinces when it comes to gender equity conditions. Across all three countries, participants identified barriers at multiple levels such as 1) individual biases, 2) systemic inequalities, and 3) cultural norms. On the other hand, they also discussed supportive factors at each of these levels, including 1) ways women worked to individually overcome challenges, 2) factors that helped them throughout their careers, and 3) proposed strategies to support more women in forest carbon monitoring.
