Amazon women: gender, environment and territory

Deforestation and nature degradation affects all life in the Amazon rainforest, from fish to birds and from fungi to mammals. Throughout the Amazon region, the way of life of Indigenous peoples and local communities is also threatened by deforestation, pollution and the violation of human rights. Related activities, such as mining and industrial agriculture, affect women and men differently. How does deforestation influence gender dynamics? And what obstacles encounter women environmental and territorial defenders? In the forthcoming report Amazon women, IUCN NL analyses gender dynamics and the obstacles women environmental defenders encounter, based on field studies conducted in Colombia and Peru.

Header photo: © FCDS

The new report presents the results of two studies on gender, environment and territory carried out in the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon with the aim of identifying and analysing the forms of violence and the current situation of women in these areas.

Women environmental defenders in Peru

The Amazon women report explores the multiple forms of violence faced by women environmental and territorial defenders, and the specific threats and risks they experience, in Madre de Dios in Peru. We analyse their current situation in terms of freedom of movement and autonomy, political representation and access to justice, and how they organise themselves for self-protection. In addition, from a gender and intercultural perspective, public policies and state strategies related to the care and protection of women environmental and territorial defenders are analysed.

Colombia: women and drivers of deforestation

In Colombia we explore, applying a gender perspective, the role of women and the consequences on their body-territory of the main six drivers of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon: land grabbing, cattle ranching, illicit crops, mining and industrial agriculture. In parallel, the forthcoming report analyses the incorporation of the gender approach in public policies related to deforestation implemented in Colombia by different administrations.

The Amazon women report will soon be published on this page.