Regional Wood Energy DevelopmentProgramme in Asia (GCP/RAS/154/NET)

Issued by the

June 1995 Vol.10 No.2

Gender and Wood Energy

ContentsEditorial ......................... 2

Why Gender in WoodEnergy Development? .. 3

Gender Analysis Tools .. 5

Institutionalization of theGender Approach ......... 6

Country Papers onGender and WoodEnergy .......................... 9

Discussions on Genderand Wood Energy ....... 10

RWEDP Policy Statementon Gender and WoodEnergy ........................ 12

Development in Gender?.................................... 13

News & Notes ............. 16

Publications Review.... 18

Events ......................... 19

page 2 Wood Energy News

Programme AddressRegional Wood Energy DevelopmentProgramme in Asia (GCP/RAS/154/NET)FAO Regional Office for Asia and the PacificMaliwan Mansion, Phra Atit RoadBangkok 10200, Thailand

Fax: +66-2-280 0760Phone: +66-2-280 2760E-mail: rwedp@ksc.net.th

Dr. W. Hulscher Chief Technical AdviserAuke Koopmans Wood Energy ConservationConrado Heruela Wood Energy PlanningTara Bhattarai Wood Energy ResourcesHarry Oosterveen APO/Information Systems

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication donot imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of anycountry, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation ofits frontiers or boundaries.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors alone and donot imply any opinion whatsoever on the part of the FAO.

EditorialGender issues are not new to wood energy development. For many years they haveplayed a role in community forestry and household energy projects. However, in theoverall planning and general policy making for wood energy, they have still not beeninstitutionalised. Gender issues refer to the role and position of women, but also toother groups like children and elderly people. Such groups often face specificproblems with respect to the production and use of woodfuels.

Quite a number of RWEDP-member countries have already adopted articulatepolicies which address gender problems, some even specifically in the field of woodenergy. However, as with other policies, implementation is not always easy. A lot stillneeds to be done to operationalize policy statements into effective action. RWEDPhas taken up this challenge together with its members. At the Expert Consultationon “Gender and Wood Energy in Asia” in Chiang Mai, last June, policy makers ofmember countries reviewed relevant gender analysis tools. They also discussedhow to institutionalise a gender approach in their respective organisations. In doingso, they went a few steps further than just re-iterating popular statements on gendergaps. It was probably the first time high-level policy makers from both the forestryand the energy sectors have jointly discussed gender issues. The meeting provideda conceptual framework to assist in the process of integrating gender issues intowood energy policies. One of the results was the endorsement of an operationalpolicy statement of RWEDP on Gender and Wood Energy.

The meeting covered the grounds for training of staff from the 2 named sectors ingender and wood energy. Special training workshops will be organised by RWEDPin 1995 and 1996, and training modules will be developed, as advised by theRegional Advisory Committee meeting last January, for integration into furtherRWEDP training activities.

At the meeting in Chiang Mai I was asked by one of the delegates why donorcountries these days put so much emphasis on gender, which is sometimes felt asa donor pressure. My answer was the following: I like to believe that the internationalscientific community is constantly studying problems of development, i.e. howpolicies and interventions can more effectively benefit target groups. Worldwide,academics often link to NGO’s, and they work in both developed and developingcountries. Usually, donors are relatively quick to pick up the findings and signals ofthis international community, as donor countries happen to have the means to doso. Then, donors translate them into programmes. Through this route, it may seemas if gender issues, or for that matter environmental management, energy conser-vation, and many other issues, originate from donors, but actually their origin lies inthe developing countries as much as in the developed countries.

None of us in Chiang Mai pretended there will be one common solution to problemsof gender and wood energy in different cultures and societies. However, we didagree that gender issues need our further attention and professional efforts for thebenefit of those groups most in need.

Front page: Visit to a Hill Tribe Village during the gender meeting

Programme Focal PointsBangladesh: Chief Conservator of Forests,

Forest Dept., Min. of Environmentand Forest;Member (S+T), BCSIR

Bhutan: DG, Forest Dept.;Director, Dept. of Power, Min. ofEnergy

China: DG, Dept. of International Coop-eration, Min. of ForestryDep.Director, INFORTRACE

India: Inspector General of Forests, Min.of Environment and Forests;Secretary, Min. of Non-Conven-tional Energy Sources

Indonesia: DG of Electricity and EnergyDevelopment;Director, Bureau of Planning, Min.of Forestry

Laos: DG, Dept. of Forestry, Min. ofAgriculture - Forestry

Malaysia: DG, Forest Research InstituteDG, Economic Planning Unit,Prime Minister’s Dept.

Maldives: Dep. Director, AgriculturalServices, Min. of Fisheries andAgriculture

Myanmar: DG, Forest Dept.;DG, Energy Planning Dept., Min. ofEnergy

Nepal: DG, Dept. of Forests, Min. ofForest and Soil Conservation;Executive Secretary, Water andEnergy Commission Secretariat

Pakistan: Inspector General of Forests, Min.of Food, Agriculture and Coop.;Chairman, Pakistan Council ofAppropriate Technology

Philippines:Secretary, Dept. of Energy;Secretary, Dept. of Environmentand Natural Res.

Sri Lanka: Conservator of Forests, ForestDept.;Secretary, Min. of Irrigation, Powerand Energy

Thailand: DG, Royal Forest Dept.;DG, Dept. of Energy Developmentand Promotion

Vietnam: Director, Forest Sciences InstituteDeputy Director, Institute ofEnergy, Min. of Energy

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 3

Margaret Skutsch

Women are heavily involved in woodenergy, of that there can be no doubt. Inmost countries, at least in the ruralareas, it is primarily women who areresponsible for gathering firewood orcrop residues for household fuel use,and certainly it is they who do the cook-ing. This fact is known to all in thebusiness of wood energy planning. Sowhy do we need special training on howto take gender into consideration inwood energy planning?

The truth is that the majority of woodenergy planners (and the overwhelm-ing majority of them are men) rarelyreally sit down with the women for whomthey are planning and discuss the prob-lems from their angle. Too often, theassumption is made that, for example,a new type of stove that has been shownto use less firewood will readily beadopted by women because it savesthem time in fuel gathering. In reality,women have many criteria in assessingthe utility of stoves, of which fueleconomy may be only one. These crite-ria are not universal and may need to becarefully investigated in the early stagesof planning, if the stove project is to bea success.

An even more common assumption isthat women will be pleased to plantsome trees because this will supplythem with a ready source of firewood.Whether this is the case or not may infact depend on whether there is anyland available where the women feelconfident that their trees will be safe, onwhether tree growing is culturally con-sidered to be a suitable activity forwomen, on what type of trees are beingoffered, and of course on whether theyhave any time at the planting season totake on this extra work. Very manyprojects have run into difficulties whenwomen ‘unaccountably’ did not appear

ductive work. In addition they often havecommunity obligations to attend to. Menare perhaps more heavily involved inproductive work, but rarely have time-consuming duties at home, and fre-quently have more leisure time. Under-standing working patterns is importantwhen planning projects since these al-most always require participation of menand women in various activities.

It is not only working times and respon-sibilities that differ between men andwomen. There are also differences inthe access that men and women haveto different resources—forest, fields,cattle (all potential energy sources),money, credit, etc. and to the level ofcontrol they have over them. Womenfrequently have access to fields wherethe crops grow but often have no controlor decision making power over what isgrown there, how much is sold, and howthe waste is used, for example. Accessand control may be vital to the successof a project and therefore understand-ing who has these rights and who doesnot can be crucial. The point is that thesituation with regards to these issues(as in the pattern of work responsibility)varies from community to community,and each case needs to be carefullystudied to determine the local condi-tions. One should be wary ofgeneralisations on these matters. Evenwithin one country, districts and evenvillages can have different cultural cus-toms and different traditions of authorityover resources.

RWEDP is developing a training pack-age in which gender analytic tools arepresented and practised by using casestudies, all of which are based on realexamples of situations and projectswithin the region. The course starts witha general introduction in which partici-pants exchange ideas about the rela-tionship of women and of men to woodenergy, describing the situation as theyknow it. For some people, the purposeof gender analysis is to highlight the factthat women in many communities areessentially subjugated to their menfolk,working longer hours for less return and

Why Gender in Wood Energy Development?

Dr. Margaret M. Skutsch is a seniorlecturer with the Technology and Devel-opment Group at the University ofTwente, the Netherlands

very enthusiastic about this sort of inter-vention.

Less obvious, but even more common,are cases where wood energy relatedprojects which by their nature are notintended to specifically benefit women,turn out to have inadvertent negativeeffects on women. Examples are em-ployment generation schemes basedon forest products use (lacquer making,uppage etc). These can end up quiteunintentionally putting women out ofwork by displacing traditional craft cen-tres with modernised workshops—filledwith men, who for a variety of often non-explicit cultural and training reasons‘fit’, or are thought to fit, with the newmachinery and workshop locations bet-ter than women do. Usually in suchcases the problem is simply that nothought was ever given in the planningto the fact the project might have animpact on women, which is differentfrom the impact it has on men. A littleforethought might have prevented someserious problems.

Gender analysis is the name given tothe set of tools, or planning analyticprocedures, which have been devel-oped to help planners consciously andsystematically take gender differencesinto account. Ideally, they should beapplied to all projects, not just projectsspecially intended to benefit women, ifthe kinds of problems illustrated aboveare to be avoided. The term ‘gender’ isused in preference to ‘women’ becausegender analysis is not just aboutwomen’s needs, preferences and con-straints, but about differences betweenwomen and men in these regards.

Gender analytic tools (and there are alarge number of different ones to choosefrom) generally start by looking at whodoes what—task distribution—in the vil-lage or community. In most communi-ties in the region there are quite strictlydetermined patterns of responsibility,and besides looking after the house-hold matters, women frequently spendmany hours in agriculture on the familyfarm, or as labourers, or in other pro-

page 4 Wood Energy News

with less control over the means ofproduction. For others, the purpose is toimprove project efficiency by designingit to fit more closely to the reality of thefield situation. Both are valid startingpoints, and it is useful to begin thecourse by comparing and discussingthe appropriateness of these differentaims. A film prepared by the FAO For-ests Trees and People programmewhich illustrates the application of gen-der analysis to community forestryprojects in the region helps to orientcourse participants as to the nature andpurpose of these tools.

Then a variety of gender analytic toolsare presented. These are of two types.The first are those that are intended as‘desk’ tools, for a project officer, forexample, to use in assessing the prob-able benefit of a proposed project. Theyare matrices and checklists which helpthe officer make sure that importantgender considerations are not forgot-ten, and give an early warning if genderproblems are likely to be encountered.These tools can also be used by project

designers as regular checks within theplanning process. They are intended toprocess data in a standardised way,and can be compared to EnvironmentalImpact Matrices, which are commonlyand routinely used to ensure that anypotential environmental damage is iden-tified early in project planning.

The second group of tools are thoseintended as ‘field’ tools, in other wordsfor gathering raw data in the field. Thesecan help project planners to gather thekind of data which will allow the differ-ences in gender to become apparent.Many of these latter tools are closelyrelated to Participatory Rural Appraisaltools of the type publicised in the FAOprogramme Forests, Trees and People.They include methods such as prepara-tion of ‘seasonal calendars’, differenti-ated or disaggregated by gender, and‘resource maps’ in which gender spe-cific resource access becomes clear.They also include methods for runningdiscussions or focus groups. The kindof data gathered through use of these

field tools will provide input for analysisusing the first group of analytical tools.

In the final part of the course, attentionis turned to how a ‘gender sensitive’approach, using both types of tools, canbe integrated into the normal workingprocedures of typical wood energy plan-ning offices, and how resistance to it(perhaps itself due to fears about thereal purpose of gender analysis) mightbe gradually overcome.

The course is being designed as a set ofmodules, each complete in itself, withtrainers’ notes, lecture material, exer-cises, case studies and reading mate-rial. A module can take from half a dayto three days, depending on the com-plexity of the material. This modulardesign means that courses can be puttogether in a very flexible way, accord-ing to the particular needs and timeavailable in a given situation. The mate-rials are in preparation and are beingtested, but should be available fromRWEDP in the course of 1996. It isplanned to run several courses in thenear future.

Senior wood energy planners met to discuss and consider the application of gender analysis in Chiang Mai, 28–30 June

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 5

Gender Analysis ToolsGovind Kelkar

Gender analysis begins with the recog-nition that while sex is a biological cat-egory, gender is a social and culturalconstruction. Gender is based on theroles that are socially accepted for menand women, though differently orga-nized in different societies. Gender re-lations take account of the central is-sues of power and hierarchy within thefamily and society.

The accepted gender roles and rela-tions give rise to a number of persistentgender gaps—gaps in wages, housingand land titles, credit, and so on. Womenare concentrated in a few economicsectors and, relative to men, occupy thelow status, low paying jobs with gener-ally poorer working conditions, little pros-pects of occupational mobility and highincidence of sexual harassment.Women also work longer hours thanmen.

Most governments have made someprogress in providing for the practicalgender needs of women—through ba-sic needs and poverty alleviation pro-grams to provide food, shelter and thesurvival of families. But, for instance, inallocating homestead or agricultural landto the landless, the landlessness ofwomen has not been addressed, con-sequently, there has been little changein the types of gender relations withinAsian families.

That persistent gaps can be closed canbe seen from the experiences of indig-enous communities, from once social-ist countries like China and Vietnamand from the advanced capitalist coun-tries, like Norway and Sweden. In all ofthese there has been both a participa-tion of men in housework and of womenin work outside the home.

What gender analysis changes in plan-ning is its assumption about the micro-economic unit of society—the family orhousehold. It introduces the recognitionof different interests, different needsand different rights at the householdlevel, all of which tend to affect house-hold functioning and its response totechnological and other development.Why there have been such differingresponses to the improved cookstovesprogramme cannot be understood with-out gender analysis.

Gender analysis tools enable plannersand development practitioners to takeaccount of gender factors in the designof policy and projects. These tools are:

1. The sexual/gender division oflabour, dealing basically with how workis organized and who does what. Thiscan change from community to com-munity and over time within a commu-nity.

2. The types of work done by women,men and children. Both of these analy-ses are necessary in order to ensurethat the participation of the genders isensured in various project activities.

3. Access to and control over re-sources. Resources can be economic(land, equipment, tools), political (rep-resentation in organizations and com-mittees), time, and access to educationand training. There can be divergencebetween access and control. In China,India, Vietnam and many of the coun-tries of Asia women play an increasinglyimportant role in agriculture. But thoughwomen have access to land for work,they lack ownership rights and controlover it. Furthermore, benefits can alsovary from person to person within afamily. It is not need, but family andsocial position which affect the distribu-tion of benefits within a household.

4. Influencing factors. These are themacro-economic and political factorsthat have an effect on gender relations,for example, male migration, or thegrowth of women-based industrializa-

tion can both bring about changes ingender relations.

5. Condition and position. The formerrefers to women’s material state—theirimmediate sphere of experience, andthe latter refers to the relative social andeconomic standing of women and men,i.e. to gender relations. Women’s con-dition, for instance, may improve with-out there being a change in the genderrelations of women and men. This dis-tinction is carried forward in the nextanalytical tool.

6. Practical needs and strategic in-terests. The first relates to the conditionof women (and men), while the secondrelates to the possibility of transformingthe existing gender relations in the di-rection of greater equity and democ-racy.

Besides the above analytical tools, ofspecial interest to policy planners andproject managers are the possible rolesof women and men in the developmentof technology and sustainable manage-ment systems. It is now realized thatsustainable management systems in,for instance, forestry are only possible

Dr. Govind Kelkar is associate profes-sor and head of the Centre for Genderand Development Studies at the AsianInstitute of Technology, Bangkok, Thai-land

page 6 Wood Energy News

Uraivan Tan-Kim-Yong

If a gender approach is to be adopted inenergy planning, this does not meansetting up a few special projects to try tobenefit women. It means that all projectsshould be viewed through ‘the genderspecs’, similar to the way they are viewedin an environmental perspective. Itmeans that gender analytic tools andprocedures need to be integrated intothe regular pattern of work as carriedout by the organization. Thus, the atten-tion given to gender (or to ‘women’) isnot a special but a normal planning taskinstitutionalized into the routine of officeactivity. Just as it is increasingly com-mon these days to carry out an environ-mental impact analysis of any proposedproject, so it should be standard prac-tice to carry out a gender analysis inaddition. While this does of course en-tail an increase in workload to the plan-ners concerned, the chances are thatthe effectiveness of wood energyprojects will be greatly increased if properattention is given to gender matters.Therefore in the long run, time (andmoney) will be saved.

However, as we all know bureaucraciesare often slow or even unwilling to makechanges in procedures and a number ofdeliberate steps must be taken to pre-pare the way for the adoption of thegender approach.

Visible support from the top

In order to ensure that staff do respondand adopt gender analytic procedures,it is essential that a policy directive ispromulgated which is clear and definiteabout what the policy is. Such a policystatement should state not only theorganization’s policy on gender in gen-eral, but also on the strategy, i.e. how itintends to ensure that a gender sensi-tive approach is followed. The policystatement may be rather specific aboutthe procedures which it expects staff tofollow in this regard. It should also indi-cate the commitment of policy to thegender issue by indicating that staff willbe evaluated and promoted on the ba-sis of their implementation of the gen-der approach (as well as on other crite-ria). The policy directive should be dis-tributed and discussed throughout theorganization.

Gender analytical procedures

A standard analytical and reporting ap-proach, such as the Harvard Frame-work (Overholt et al., 1985) or a stan-dard checklist, can be used; alterna-tively, an adaptation of such an ap-proach, designed to fit the specializedwork of the organization concerned canbe made. Most agencies, such as en-ergy planning ministries, will possiblyfind it better to create their own standardapproach following general guidelinesof the Harvard sort. The manual shouldcover the gender component in all as-pects of planning including project for-mulation, appraisal, implementation,monitoring and evaluation. Whatever

methods are used must be clearly de-fined and their use explained in a shortmanual which should be distributed toall departments, together with the policydirective on gender. Obviously suchmethods should be subject to criticismand revision in time as experience inusing them develops. Where staff ex-perience difficulty in applying the statedmethods, it should be clear to them towhom they should turn to for advice,and to whom they can express sugges-tions regarding the appropriateness ofthe methods.

Appropriate structure and locationfor gender expertise

A basic question the organization mustask itself is: can we cope with the gen-der approach by training existing staffor do we need some additionalspecialised staff?

Let it first be said that training of theexisting staff is essential whether or notnew specialized staff are recruited. Fail-ure to train existing staff will result inmisunderstanding, resentment and out-right rejection of work done by the newspecialised staff. However, the in-creased workload incurred by the gen-der analytical procedures may justifythe hiring of additional specialised staffin the case of large organizations. Theremay be a minimum requirement of a(new) gender specialist to organize thetraining for staff internally (see below).

Assuming that new staff need to berecruited, the question then becomes:should a special gender unit be set up

Dr Uraivan Tan-Kim-Yong is director ofthe Resource Management and Devel-opment Programme, Faculty of SocialSciences, University of Chiang Mai,Thailand

with the cooperation of the users, andalso that technological advances andthe spread of innovations both dependon the participation of the producers,farmers and others.

7. Agency roles. In both managementand technology development genderanalysis recognizes that women andmen have different agency roles to play.

The division of labour in production andmanagement gives women and mendifferent specific types of knowledge.Efficient systems of management andof technology development will thus haveto give full play to the specifically-devel-oped capabilities of both women andmen, again recognizing that it is alsonecessary to go beyond existing genderroles, while starting out from a recogni-tion of those roles.

In sum, gender analysis tools enable usto see how the effect of policy measureson a family, or more specifically thedistribution of benefits and of workloadswithin the family, and the participation ofthe family in management and technol-ogy development are influenced by andwill in turn influence gender roles andrelations.

Institutionalization of the Gender Approach

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 7

within the organization, or should largerunits within the organization have a gen-der specialist attached directly to them?There are advantages and disadvan-tages to both models. There is a dangerthat a special, separate gender unit maygenerate conflict and be marginalizedwithin the organization; on the otherhand, if it is well managed, it might havesufficient resources to build up a gooddocumentation centre and form a focalpoint for extending the gender debatewithin the organization. In comparison,the distribution of a handful of genderexperts over the whole organisationwould probably lead to fewer situationsof conflict, but also to less visibility andaccessibility of gender matters. Muchdepends on the existing culture of theorganization concerned and its normalworking procedures: if it is quite normalthat inter-departmental committees ex-ist and if they are effective in otherareas, then a ‘spread-out’ model of gen-der expertise might be the most effec-tive. In a more ‘top-down’ type of orga-nization in which directives are gener-ally issued from above without muchdiscussion, then perhaps a separategender unit is more appropriate. In

smaller organizations such as NGOsthe matter does not really arise as inter-nal communication is generally mucheasier.

Even if the budget does not extend tothe employment of additional ‘gender’staff it is wise in a technical team toensure that some social scientists arepresent. If they are already in place,then it may be possible to place themain responsibility for the implementa-tion of the gender approach in their jobdescriptions (but, as noted already, donot neglect to train the technical teammembers too: they will not accept ad-vice from the social scientists if they donot see the point of it or understand it).It is not essential that such staff befemale, but as there are far more fe-male graduates in social sciences thanin technical fields, there is a good chancethat they will be. If the ‘gender specialist’is indeed a woman, it is important that aman on the staff (technical or non-tech-nical) should be made co-responsiblefor gender, since it is important that thewhole gender issue is not seen just as‘women’s business’. The tendency torevert to the notion that gender is about

women, and therefore that only womenneed be concerned about it, is one thathas constantly to be combatted in orga-nizations. If the gender issue is seen assuch by the majority of (male) staffmembers, there is a large probabilitythat it will be marginalized.

On-going training programme

Large organizations such as interna-tional donor agencies may have perma-nent gender experts employed solely totrain their own staff. In smaller organi-zations this is of course not possible,and the choice is to hire temporary staffto carry out training intermittently, or toallocate the training responsibility to anexisting member of staff in addition tohis/her existing tasks. It is however im-portant that all staff at policy and imple-mentation levels receive some training.Neither is training a ‘one-off’ exercise: itmay be necessary to repeat trainingsessions or design more advanced onesfor some or all staff as the need arises.

Training should relate as directly aspossible to the work of the staff con-cerned. It should therefore be based on

Gender roles in hill tribes were studied at a field trip during the meeting in Chiang Mai

page 8 Wood Energy News

the concrete gender proceduresadopted by the organization, and illus-trated with exercises and discussion onprojects or programmes which the or-ganization is actually involved in. Earlypreparation of an in-house manual onstandard procedures to be used willobviously assist in focusing training onthe reality of staff work. However, expe-rience shows that gender training, evenwhen based on procedural matters andhow to carry out routine analytical tasks,often overflows into much more generaldiscussion and learning as regards gen-der in society. Since gender training is inessence not just a matter of skills, butalso of attitude, it is very important thatsufficient time is allowed in the trainingsessions for discussion and critique.

The ideal group size for training is 12-15persons but training programmes canvary from half a day to two weeks inlength. It is possible to train each unitwithin the organization separately - whichhas the advantage that training casestudies can be used which are directlyrelevant to the work of that unit - butmixing staff from different units is alsointeresting. Whether staff of greatly dif-fering rank are included in the sameworkshops will depend on the level ofcommunication that is to be expected ifthis is done. It is essential that all partici-pants in the training workshops feelable to express their opinions, and if thepresence of senior staff suppresses theability of junior staff to speak out it ismore sensible to provide training bylevel.

The ideal trainers would be a team ofone man and one woman; this combi-nation has been shown time and timeagain to be very fruitful, indicating toparticipants that gender is not just aboutwomen. Although the basic trainingmaterials may be standard, care shouldbe taken that the case studies or ex-amples used are as close to the normalwork experience of the participants aspossible. Case studies which the par-ticipants have to analyze themselves,using the standard procedures adoptedby the organization, are without ques-tion the most effective way of learning.

From the experiences of major donororganizations with gender training for

their own staff, fourteen important les-sons can be drawn, which are brieflysummarized below:

1. There must be an explicit mandatefor gender training from the top of theorganization. This mandate must beclearly communicated to all departmentswithin the organization. It must be clearthat gender training is for the entireorganization and not only for the genderoffice(r). A broad range of people has tobe trained to ensure that gender issuesbecome a normal part of the operations.Directors and administrators must at-tend the training: they need to learn thelanguage of gender issues and, at thesame time, make a statement by theirpresence that gender training is indeedimportant to the organization as a whole.

2. Training can serve as an effectivemechanism to integrate gender per-spectives and gender analysis into theoperations of an organization. However,training is a process and requires suffi-cient time to achieve full impacts.

3. Gender training must be managedand backstopped by strong, qualifiedprofessionals within the organization.

4. Someone from within the organi-zation needs to have full-time responsi-bility for training (Training Coordinator).

5. Training is more effective and effi-cient when the same team or at least acore group of the same team conductsthe training over the initial training pe-riod during which gender analysis isbeing introduced to the organization.

6. Training of trainers is a critical ele-ment for achieving long-term integra-tion of gender issues and analysis in anorganization.

7. Every training course needs prepa-ration time.

8. Training must be financed, andcosts for a training programme must becomprehensive.

9. Trainers require adequate re-sources and support personnel.

10. The case method approach is par-ticularly well-suited to training in genderanalysis, because it avoids lecturing toparticipants, actively engages partici-pants in learning as individuals and incollective groups and provides realisticexamples in relation to gender analysisin development efforts.

11. It may not be necessary to developnew case studies in order to begin train-ing in gender analysis. Existing gendercase studies can be used in initial train-ing activities.

12. Selection of participants is crucialto a successful training course orprogramme.

13. It is essential to provide partici-pants with an analytical framework forgender issues and analysis. This frame-work is not a checklist or a recipe, but atool that enables critical diagnosis andanalysis leading to better project designand implementation.

14. There is no single training strategythat will fit all organizations: each orga-nization needs to diagnose the internalsituation in order to design an effectivetraining strategy that will successfullyassist in the process of integrating gen-der analysis within the organization, andovercoming the resistance towards gen-der issues.

Other steps

Whether for training or for carrying outspecialized tasks, it is important that theorganization maintains links with a num-ber of gender consultants who can becalled upon occasionally in an individualcapacity or via other institutions such asuniversities.

In addition, it would be wise to reviewthe standard guidelines used by theorganization both for hiring consultantsand for bringing in regular staff. Mostguidelines are biased in favour of malecandidates; they may need to be rewrit-ten.

If possible, a special fund or budgetshould be established to cover genderrelated activities such as small semi-nars, visits of specialists, sending staff

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 9

Harry Oosterveen

During the Gender and Wood Energymeeting, organized by RWEDP inChiang Mai from 28 to 30 June, therepresentatives of each country gave astatement on the situation in their owncountry, and many of them prepared apaper on this issue. Based on these,this paper will give an overview of thegender situation in the region, with aparticular focus on wood energy relatedissues. It should be noted that thesepapers were often written from the per-spective of one particular sector (for-estry/energy) and may not give a com-plete picture of each country.

In all countries it appears that inequali-ties in position between men and womenhave been recognized, and a special-ized ministry or other organization hasbeen established, for example a Minis-try of Women and Children(Bangladesh), Ministry of Women’s Role(Indonesia), National Commission onthe Role of Filipino Women, etc. De-pending on the country, the main activi-ties of these organizations are:

· Formulation of policies and laws thatprovide a legal framework for equaltreatment of men and women (e.g.same salaries for same work) andthat promote special attention towomen’s issues and the involvementof women in all kinds of activities;

· Implementation of programmes thatspecifically address women’s issues,such as reproductive health, accessto water, fuel and sanitation, but alsomore strategic needs such as edu-cation for women, addressing gen-

der issues in the work place, andsupporting employment opportuni-ties for women.

Still, the activities of these organiza-tions vary substantially from country tocountry, which is in line with the differentviews on how women can best behelped: in some cases the focus is onprogrammes to address the practicalneeds of women, in which women areseen as passive beneficiaries, whereasin other cases the focus is more oncreating opportunities or removing bar-riers for women in their development;hence, women are seen as an activeparticipant in their development. Also,within the same country you may findthese different attitudes in different or-ganizations.

Even though, “officially” and under thelaw there are no inequalities betweenmen and women, in practice the situa-tion is often different. There are manydifferences, in particular in the type ofwork that is done, in access to educa-tion, health care, employment, credit,etc. These vary from country to country,and within countries there are oftengreat differences between the urbanand rural settings. It was also men-tioned that the situation is changing,and this also explains differences withina country: changing a policy can bedone relatively fast, but to change thepractice takes more time, and in thecities these changes take place fasterthan in the rural areas.

The extent to which energy/forestrydepartments were involved in genderissues, or the level of cooperation withspecific gender organizations, was of-

ten not clear from the papers. The im-portance of women was stressed, asthey are the ones who usually deal withthe collection and use of wood energy,and they were mentioned as the mainbeneficiaries from improved cookstoves. Some departments went fur-ther and promoted a participatory ap-proach in the relevant activities. An in-stitutionalized gender analysis approachhowever was mentioned only by theNepalese Water and Energy Commis-sion Secretariat (WECS).

With support from the Canadian Inter-national Development Agency (CIDA),WECS conducted a seminar and work-shop in 1991, focusing both on genderissues in the use and management ofenergy resources, and on a strategy forthe effective participation of women. AWID (Women In Development) sectionwithin the WECS was created in 1993,and has developed guidelines for theincorporation of gender issues into theenergy sector. As these guidelines havenot been implemented yet, no informa-tion is available on their effectiveness.

In general, the evidence from the pa-pers suggests that the linkages betweeninstitutions set up to address genderissues and institutions dealing with woodenergy issues are not very well devel-oped. Thus, close cooperation betweenthese institutions is rare. Moreover, thereare very few examples of a genderanalysis approach being adopted withinthe wood energy institutes themselvesand the capacity for such adoption stillappears to be very limited.

to occasional training outside the orga-nization, purchase of books etc.

Network with other organizations thatare attempting to bring in a gender-sensitive approach to planning. Makesure that there are lines of communica-tion to important gender groups such asthe Ministry of Women’s Affairs, major

References:

Overholt, Catherine A., Kathleen Cloud,Mary B. Anderson, and James E.Austin, “Gender Analysis Frame-work” in Gender Analysis in Devel-opment Planning, Kumarian Press,1991

women’s NGOs and other technicalministries.

Monitor and evaluate the progress madein implementing a gender sensitive plan-ning approach within the organizationand be prepared to make adaptationswhen necessary.

Country Papers on Gender and Wood Energy

page 10 Wood Energy News

Discussions on Gender and Wood Energyundermine the family? Democratic func-tioning, it was pointed out, wouldstrengthen and not weaken the familyas an institution. It was also pointed outthat there are variations in gender rolesacross cultures and that these genderroles and cultures themselves were alsonot static, but constantly changing.

Above all, it was pointed out that genderanalysis is not only relevant for thosewho advocate social equality, but alsofor those planners and developmentpractitioners solely concerned with thesuccess of their policies and develop-ment efforts.

In the course of the consultation, thevaried experiences with improved, morefuel-efficient cookstoves came up fordiscussion. It was clear that in, say,China these stoves were sold commer-cially on the market, and were quite wellaccepted as an innovation, whereas in,say, India and Nepal, there were nu-merous subsidy schemes for the distri-bution of these stoves and yet theiracceptance was not very substantial.The reason lay not only in the inad-equacy of design, but more so in the factthat gender roles in India and Nepal didnot stress the economizing of women’slabour in fetching fuel and in cooking.These were non-monetized costs,whereas a stove entailed a monetizedcost. The improved stoves were widelyaccepted where, as in China, womenwere substantially involved in monetizedproduction.

The differences in gender roles relatedto the acceptance or nonacceptance ofimproved stoves were also revealed inthe discussion around the field visit. Inthe field area, the Karen more readilyaccepted the fuel-efficient improvedstoves than the Hmong. The new stovesneeded constant tending, which theHmong women working outside thehouse were loathe to do, while for theKaren the improved stoves contributedto a better quality of their main cashcrop, tea.

In discussing the planning approachesof the different government depart-ments, those of forestry and energy,represented in the consultation, it be-came clear that there were major differ-ences in the experiences of the two withregard to gender issues.

Across Asia there has been a shift,though not to the same extent in everycountry, to participatory forms of forestmanagement. In Nepal all the incomefrom community forestry goes to theusers. There are rules and regulationsabout land use in the forests and theDepartment of Forestry provides tech-nical help.

In community forestry projects it hasbeen realized that if communities andfamilies are taken as undifferentiatedunits, then projects are likely to fail. Inthe Philippines, for example, womenwere initially not part of the training.However, later it was seen that if womenwere trained and got the credit, then theproject would work better. Without tak-ing account of the existing division oflabour in the household, a project couldnot be efficiently executed.

It was also pointed out that as a devel-opment objective it was also necessaryto take measures to change the divisionof labour and control of resources in thehousehold in a more fair and demo-cratic direction.

Discussions revealed that there waslittle realization of gender issues withinthe region’s departments of energy.While there was a disaggregation ofdata on energy sources into non-mon-etized and monetized fuels, the socialfactors underlying such differences insources and uses of fuel were notbrought out. In fact, the area of non-monetized fuels tended to be ignored byenergy departments. It was mainly inforestry departments, where there wereconcerns with the sustainability ofwoodfuel extraction, that the non-mon-etized fuel sector was looked into.

D. Nathan

During the Regional Expert Consulta-tion on Gender and Wood Energy inAsia the participants actively engagedthemselves in the programme, andmany points made in the lectures andpresentations were discussed by themat length. Given the fact that most par-ticipants were attending a gender con-sultation (or workshop) for the first time,it was inevitable that a lot of time wastaken up in discussing basic conceptsof gender analysis, rather than the spe-cific application of gender analysis towoodfuel-related issues. What followsis a brief account of the discussions,drawing out the salient points made.

While there was almost no reference to“good wives and mothers” it was arguedby some that there was a physical orbiological basis to gender differences:men can do hard work, while womencan do delicate work. The discussionshowed that the idea of what is hardwork is itself a matter of definition on thebasis of the values of a society. Is plough-ing harder work than transplanting?Furthermore, in Africa for example,women are not less strong than men.Finally, in today’s world, with machinestaking over much of the physical aspectof labour, it is not physical strength butskill that is important.

In response to the statements on exist-ing gender gaps (in wages and earn-ings, in positions of power and influ-ence, etc.) some questioned whether itwas at all necessary to accept the clos-ing of gender gaps as a developmentobjective. In reply it was stated that ifother gaps, e.g. relating to race or caste,were not acceptable in development,then gender gaps also should not beacceptable.

But will reducing gaps erode the tradi-tional roles of women and men, and

Dr D. Nathan is a social scientist andworked for RWEDP as an independantconsultant during the Expert Consulta-tion on Gender and Wood Energy

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 11

Would incorporation of gender issuesincrease costs and reduce efficiency ina project? While some argued that itwould increase costs, others pointedout that with people’s participation, inwhich the roles of both women and menwere to be taken into account, the pro-cess of project implementation mightbecome longer and, thus, seem to in-crease costs. But if women were notconsulted on a project, it might fail alto-gether. Failure is more expensive thana longer process involving consultationwith women and men.

Some pointed out that education wasnecessary for effective participation. Butothers argued that participation shouldnot wait until the persons had beeneducated. The right to vote or to governoneself, far more serious rights, werenot made contingent upon educationalattainments. Education is always anobjective, but cannot be made a condi-tion.

Given that gender analysis is essentialto improving the working of a develop-

ment programme, how can a concernwith gender issues be institutionalized?It was argued that political support wasneeded at the national level. One par-ticipant said that political will to take upgender issues and improve the condi-tion of women was necessary.

At a ministry or government departmentlevel, policy statements which addressesgender issues in the wood energy sec-tors were thought to be necessary.

Discussion on the ways of formulatingand implementing gender policies led torecommendations, unanimously ap-proved by the participants. The first wasthat to administer and monitor the imple-mentation of gender policies thereshould be institutions with responsibilityfor gender matters at all levels, fromplanning down. Further, gender-basedresponsibilities should also be writteninto the duties and terms of reference ofdifferent staff. It was agreed that thereshould be a gender sensitization of allstaff. This could begin by offering themgender analysis training. Along with the

above, it was also felt that it was neces-sary to have greater involvement ofwomen at all levels, including the higherpositions. In the discussion it wasstressed that gender sensitization of allstaff and the greater involvement ofwomen at all levels were not alternativesuggestions, but both needed to beimplemented.

It was suggested that RWEDP couldprepare specific materials on the gen-der issue in wood energy in each coun-try or sub-region. The participants feltthat FAO and the RWEDP could takethe lead in organizing trainers’ trainingprogrammes in the various countries ofthe region. The RWEDP staff pointedout that sub-regional workshops for train-ing project staff in gender analysis werebeing planned, and that modules thatcould be used for gender analysis train-ing both within RWEDP-related depart-ments and other institutions would alsobe prepared.

Discussion during the meeting

page 12 Wood Energy News

RWEDP Policy Statement on Gender and Wood EnergyPolicy

1. While appreciating that specialprojects specifically targeted at womencan be beneficial in certain instances,RWEDP maintains that women’s inter-ests in the wood energy field can bestbe served by adopting a gender ap-proach across all its activities. In this,women’s role in wood energy supplyand use is not considered separatelybut viewed in relation to men’s (andchildren’s) roles. The crucial factors toconsider here are, who does what, andwhy; and who has access to and controlover the sources of wood energy. Thistype of analysis needs to be appliedboth to the existing situation and to theimplications of any planned wood en-ergy interventions. Such types of gen-der analysis will provide the basis for theplanning of ameliorative measureswhere necessary.

2. Many wood energy projects areintended to be of immediate value towomen in assisting them to meet theirday-to-day practical needs. There is,however, potential for wood energyprojects to work towards assisting inmeeting the strategic needs of womenalso, particularly with regard to estab-lishing women’s rights in the sharing ofboth responsibilities and benefits fromcommunity land resource managementprogrammes related to firewood, andRWEDP will seek to support these rights.

3. RWEDP aims to stimulate the ap-preciation of gender issues in woodenergy planning among all energy plan-

ners. It will support these aims throughthe development of training materials tocover both awareness raising on theneed for gender analysis in energy plan-ning, and on practical, operational toolsfor carrying out gender analysis andgender sensitive planning. Thus, theemphasis is not on special women’sprojects, but on providing general pro-cedures for scanning and improving allwood energy projects, programmes andpolicies. RWEDP will endeavour to pro-mote the use of these tools in woodenergy planning organisations through-out the region by ensuring that suitabletraining is offered both at policy leveland for implementer level, and will pro-vide materials that can be used at na-tional level for training field level work-ers. Furthermore, the training materialswill be packaged in such a way that theywill be accessible and usable by anyorganisation within the region whichwishes to initiate gender and wood en-ergy training itself.

4. RWEDP will also promote the ac-tive participation of women in wood en-ergy planning at all levels, both by pre-paring training materials which demon-strate in a highly practical manner howwomen at village level can be ap-proached and encouraged, and whatthe benefits of this are likely to be; andby encouraging discussion about theneed for a woman’s viewpoint at districtand national level planning. RWEDPwill support attempts of wood energyplanning organizations and relevantministries to institutionalize gender is-sues in their work.

During the Regional Expert Consulta-tion on ‘Gender and Wood Energy inAsia’, the following statements werediscussed and endorsed by the partici-pants.

Observations

The burden of providing traditional en-ergy supplies for domestic use is com-monly the responsibility of women. Gen-eral trends towards higher woodfuelprices, lower woodfuel quality and re-duced access to woodfuels increasestheir burden. Interventions in the energysector such as landuse and fuel pricereform often have disproportionatelynegative implications for women, espe-cially those of the lower income groups.They have as yet insufficiently benefit-ted from the potential that wood energydevelopment offers. In many countriesof Asia the concerns of women areunderrepresented in shaping wood en-ergy policies and strategies.

It is widely recognised that wood energyplays a part in the reproductive tasksthat most women carry out, that is to sayin the maintenance of the household.The development of cheap (or less time-consuming) and sustainable access tosources of wood energy and of woodfuelefficient cooking and heating deviceswill be of direct benefit to women in thisrole. But women increasingly also haveenergy needs in their productive, bread-winning tasks. Many women today de-pend on wood or other biomass energyfor independent commercial activitiessuch as food preparation for sale, or areemployed in establishments which op-erate on a wood fuel base. Others areeconomically dependent on trading infuelwood and charcoal. Moreover,where firewood is being sustainably pro-duced either in woodlots or by plannedofftake and management of natural for-ests by local communities, women verycertainly are involved. The need to un-derstand and to relate to women’s needsin regard to these matters is thus ofcentral importance in wood energy plan-ning at all levels.

How Women React: Forestry for Conservation in China

Between 1949 and 1978, China’s forested area was expanded from 5 to 12.7percent of total land area. Most of the work was done by rural communes, andmuch of it by women. In 1954, for example, women planted a shelter belt along theentire coastline of Kwangtung Province. In this area, men fish and women raise thecrops. Women commune members led others in forming tree-planting groups inorder to protect their fields from the sand that was regularly blown in from the coast.In China, forestry is well integrated with other economic activities, and most ruralChinese, particularly women, regard tree growing as important as growing otherforms of crops.

From: Restoring the Balance, Women and Forest Resources, FAO/SIDA, 1988

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 13

From: Restoring the Balance, Women and Forest Resources, FAO/SIDA, 1988

Harry Oosterveen

Gender is not a new topic in the field ofwood energy and forest resource man-agement. During the previous phasesof RWEDP, the theme regularly showedup in publications, although the wordingmay have been different. In earlier docu-ments, the theme was women, whereasin more recent documentation this hasshifted towards gender, indicating thewider context of social and cultural rela-tions that determine women’s (andmen’s) position. The following are ex-cerpts from documents, published byRWEDP, which illustrate theprogramme’s concern with gender is-sues.

The role of women

“Rural women in Asia often play animportant role in the collection offuelwood, fodder and water. They arethe primary users of forest products,which are not only used for domesticconsumption but also for commercialpurposes to obtain additional family in-come.” (Borg, 1989)

“The role of women in small scale mul-tipurpose tree production systems inmountainous regions is very important.Except for ploughing the land, thewomen carry out most of the worksconnected with agriculture, horticultureand animal husbandry. Most of thefuelwood and fodder collection is doneby women. The women climb the treesto lop the branches for fodder andfuelwood collection. Felling of trees andtheir conversion into timber and/orfuelwood is, however, done by men.The women in these villages spendabout 2–4 hours per day for fodder andfuelwood collection except during sow-ing and harvesting seasons of agricul-tural crops when agricultural operationskeep them fully occupied. The womenhave to work for more time to collect andstore fuelwood for such periods andalso for rainy and winter seasons whendaily collection of fuelwood is not pos-sible.” (Singh, 1991)

“Until very recently both forestry andwomen have remained neglected stepchildren of development in most of theThird World countries. In India, how-ever, the pendulum has taken a full

swing, as today both forestry and womenhave become buzz words; along withseveral others like computers, electron-ics, biotechnology etc. And no article,seminar or speech is complete withouta rhetorical reference to one of thesewords, which are supposed to launchIndia into the 21st century.” (Saxena,1989)

The neglect of women’s role has beenexplained in different ways:

“The reasons for the neglect of womenin decision making and in managingmultipurpose tree production systemsare many. Some of the important onesare, the weak position of women in themale-dominated society in India, legalposition regarding ownership of landand lack of education.” (Singh, 1991)

“The explanation for the neglect of for-estry and women is obvious. Develop-ment has concerned itself with produc-ing surplus for the market economy,and because natural forests are usedby the poor and tribals for their con-sumption needs, and many women re-main involved in the informal rather than

Development in Gender?

page 14 Wood Energy News

Most of the documents cited in thisarticle were published about 5 yearsago. Hence, gender is not really a newtopic, but one that has already receivedconsiderable attention for some time.Thus the question arises: To what ex-tent has women’s position changed inthis time?

References:

Borg, Brigitte van der, 1989, Women’sRole in Forest Resource Manage-ment, A Reader, Report RM 13, FAO-RWEDP, Bangkok.

Chambers, Robert, 1983, Rural Devel-opment, Longmans, London.

Hoskins, M.W., 1981, “Forestry andRural Women”, in: Proceedings ofthe Seminar on the Role of Women inCommunity Forestry, Mathur et als.(eds), F.R.I., Dehra Dun.

Saxena, N.C., 1989, Development ofDegraded Village Lands in India,Experiences and Prospects, FieldDocument FD 15, FAO-RWEDP,Bangkok.

RWEDP, 1991, Report Sub-RegionalExpert Consultation ImprovedCookstove Development Programmein South Asian Countries, Report RM16, FAO-RWEDP, Bangkok.

Singh, R.V., 1991, Small Scale Multi-purpose Tree Production Systems ina Mountainous Region of India, FieldDocument FD 28, FAO-RWEDP,Bangkok.

involving women in social forestryprojects, not only for reasons of equity,but also because of their collection, useand distribution of fuelwood, their role inthe management of fuelwood resources(although less frequently recognized)and their role in income-generating ac-tivities.” (Borg, 1989)

Stove programmes

“Women’s involvement is important notonly in the collection of fuelwood butalso in its efficient utilisation. Adoptionand use of improved stoves will not bepossible without the active involvementof the women (Hoskins 1981). The en-ergy efficient earthen stoves in Kangradistrict of Himachal Pradesh becamepopular in areas where the women weretrained to make such stoves and tointroduce this technology to otherwomen.” (Singh, 1991)

This point was also confirmed at anexpert consultation on improvedcookstove development (RWEDP,1991). Among the conclusions were:

• More women need to be trained/appointed to positions of responsibil-ity in R&D programmes.

• Women should play a much greaterrole in both policy formulation andprogramme management.

the formal sector of the economy, bothhave not been able to attract seriousattention. (Chambers 1983)” (Saxena,1989)

Who’s interest?

“Even when the problems of the ruralpoor have attracted Government atten-tion, the family approach has beenadopted under the assumption that thewelfare of the head of the family, who isassumed to be a male, will percolatedown to women and children. Identifica-tion of the interest of the family with itsmale members exhibits a gender biasthat has no empirical foundation.”(Saxena, 1989)

The publications show that the interestsof male and female members can evenbe quite different:

“The women are thus more concernedabout the growing and management ofmultipurpose trees to meet the domes-tic requirements and also about theefficient utilisation of products from suchtrees. The decision making with regardto growing and managing trees is, how-ever, the domain of the men in the maledominated social structure in these vil-lages. At times, the interests and opin-ions of the man and woman in thehousehold may be divergent, but thedecision of the man prevails. As theman’s chief role in agriculture is plough-ing, the trees along fields are regardedas an interference in agricultural opera-tions and are consequently not encour-aged, despite the requests of the womenin the house for retention of such treesto augment fodder and fuelwood sup-plies. The decision to sell the trees formonetary returns is also taken by theman even though the woman of thehouse may be interested in retainingsuch trees. Some instances were quotedduring the survey of these villages, ofthe hardships to which the women wereput in collecting fodder and fuelwoodafter trees in the ownership of the house-hold had been sold.” (Singh, 1991)

“Usually women make different use offorest products than men and thereforetheir priorities can conflict. The differ-ences in priorities between men andwomen justify the need for specifically

How Women React: The Chipko Movement in India

Chipko is a Hindi word meaning “to hug”. The Chipko movement was named afterits members who hugged trees to prevent them being felled by foresters. Althoughthe first Chipko workers were men and women, at odds with official forestry policiesand mainly concerned with local employment, more and more women joined themovement when they realized that the recurring floods and landslides from whichthey were suffering were caused by deforestation. When the Forest Departmentannounced an auction of 2,500 trees in the Reni Forest overlooking the AlaknandaRiver, which had already flooded disastrously, one woman-Gaura Devi-organizedthe women of her village to protect the trees from the company that won theauction. They physically prevented the tree felling, and thus forced the UttarPradesh government to investigate. Two years later, the government placed a 10-year ban on all tree felling in the area. After that, women prevented felling in manyother forests all along the Himalayas. They have also set up cooperatives to guardlocal forests, and to organize fodder production at rates that will not harm the trees.Within the Chipko movement, women have joined in land rotation schemes forfodder collection, helped replant degraded land, and established and run nurseriesstocked with species they select.

From: Restoring the Balance, Women and Forest Resources, FAO/SIDA, 1988

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 15

From: Restoring the Balance, Women and Forest Resources, FAO/SIDA, 1988

page 16 Wood Energy News

News & NotesWood Energy Planning, Policiesand Strategies

The Philippine Department of Energy,through its Non-Conventional EnergyDivision, in cooperation with the Univer-sity of San Carlos–Affiliated NonconEnergy Center (ANEC) and the ForestManagement Bureau–Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources,and supported by FAO Regional WoodEnergy Development Programme inAsia organized a National Seminar-Workshop on Wood Energy Planning,Policies and Strategies in Cebu City,Philippines, from 28 March to 1 April1995. The meeting was attended by 43delegates. Among the delegates werenational and local government agen-cies representing forestry, energy, natu-ral resources management, environ-ment, agriculture, academe, scienceand technology, women, statistical of-fices and the country’s legislature; andnational and local organizations suchas an environmental NGO, a women’sgroup, regional universities (ANECs)and a farmers’ organization. Delegatesfrom Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand andVietnam were also present as observ-ers.

The five-day meeting had two and halfdays of paper presentations and paneldiscussions. The presentations and in-tense discussions dealt with the resultsof recent studies and surveys conductedin the country with regards to the woodenergy situation. The topics ranged from(1) the patterns of supply and use ofwood fuels in the country to (2) thecurrent programmes, strategies andpolicies of the energy and forestry sec-tors with regards to wood energy devel-opment.

This was followed by one and half daysof workshops where the multi-sectoralparticipants of this meeting agreed onthe following: (1) a common frameworkfor policy actions to be undertaken tofurther wood energy development ef-forts in the country, (2) activities neededto enhance wood energy data base andplanning capabilities, and (3) initiatives

to strengthen organizational and institu-tional structures for planning and man-aging wood energy programmes. Therewas also a one day field tour whichallowed the participants to witness thethriving wood fuel market in Cebu Cityand interact with one of the most suc-cessful wood fuel traders in the prov-ince. The meeting was closed with rec-ommendations made by the participantsto policy making agencies of the countryand to RWEDP.

Integration of WoodfuelProduction in AgroforestryExtension Programmes

RWEDP hosted its first sub-regionaltraining workshop on “IntegratingWoodfuel Production in AgroforestryExtension Programmes in SoutheastAsia” from 23 to 30 April 1995 in WestJava (Bogor), Indonesia for its eightmember countries in the subregion (i.e.China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia,Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand andVietnam). The Asia Pacific AgroforestryNetwork (APAN)—also a regionalproject of FAO with the support of theJapanese Government, and the Indo-nesian Agency for Forestry Researchand Development collaborated withRWEDP in conducting this workshop.

As the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region meet 30–80% of all theirenergy needs with woodfuels (fuelwoodand charcoal), this training workshopwas organized to increase awarenessof the potential that integrating woodfuelproduction into agricultural systems,including all rural extension schemes/programmes in a broader sense, has insustaining the supply of woodfuels.

A total of 16 participants from forestryrelated institutions and 8 from energyrelated institutions attended the trainingworkshop. Among the participantswhere eigth women and two delegatesfrom NGOs. The workshop lasted sixdays: two days of presentations andpreparation for two days of field trips,and two days of working groups. Pre-sented papers covered a wide range of

subjects, ranging from energy consump-tion patterns and the share of woodfuelin national energy balances, to its sup-ply sources, its flow systems, and theeffect of policy and legislation in itsproduction and distribution, etc. Work-shop participants from China, Philip-pines and Indonesia presented countryspecific cases. A presentation on theframework of household decision mak-ing highlighted those factors which af-fect the decision making process andemphasised the need for devising ap-propriate strategies in order to pursueagroforestry extension. Other presen-tations included topics such as the con-cept of woodfuel, species selection forwoodfuel, production of wood in differ-ent agroforestry systems, combustionand processing of woodfuels, use ofwoodfuel in households and small-scaleindustries, dissemination of improvedwoodstoves and other combustors, etc.An Indonesian case study, dealing withthe specific aspects such as the role ofwoodfuels in national energy balance,government policies on woodfuels, andthe pricing and marketing mechanismsof woodfuels, was also presented as anexample of a growing concern of thegovernment for the integration ofwoodfuel in national energy sector de-velopment plans and programmes.

The field trip was designed primarily toexhibit the Indonesian situation ofwoodfuel utilization in small-scale in-dustries, woodfuel production in forestplantations, and woodfuel trade bymiddlemen. Participants were asked tosynthesise the observations from thefield trip to explain their respective coun-try situations. This information was laterused as a guide to identify the compo-nents of specific national trainingcourses which the participants wereasked to develop within the context oftheir own country. This framework willbe used by RWEDP in coming years toreplicate similar training courses at thenational levels. The overall rating of thetraining workshop by participants was“successful”.

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 17

A second training Workshop on a simi-lar subject is planned for later this yearfor the seven member countries in SouthAsia (i.e. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and SriLanka). The tentative date is October1995 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Biomass Stoves for Institutionaland Small Industry Applications

This five day regional workshop wasorganized by the Asian RegionalCookstove Programme (ARECOP) andRWEDP from 19–23 June 1995 inYogyakarta, Indonesia. The workshopwas attended by 22 representatives andresource persons from various govern-ment and international organizations aswell as NGO’s.

Extensive discussions were held withregard to the state of the art of improvedstoves and furnaces used for institu-tional, food processing and small scaleindustrial processes. Introduction anddissemination systems based mainlyon case studies were also discussed.These consisted of biomass based in-dustries dealing with hand made paper,copra drying, salt making, food pro-cessing (khuwa [milk solids], lapsi [fruitcandy], popped rice, sweet meat, tofu,smoked fish, kerupuk [shrimp crack-ers], kecap [soya sauce], palm sugar,kalamay [glutinous rice cooked in coco-nut milk and brown sugar]) as well asseveral case studies/papers on the in-troduction of improved institutionalstoves in schools, barracks and restau-rants. The lively and often frank discus-sions resulted in the drawing up of con-clusions as well as recommendationsfor the future. These are summarizedbriefly below.

Small scale industries are importantand while the output of these smallindustries may not be reflected in theoverall economic picture of the coun-tries concerned, the industries do pro-vide productive employment and incomeand a platform of dignity for many (oftenunder-privileged) people in developingcountries. At the same time, however,biomass energy is often used in aninefficient manner.

Unfortunately, the biomass energybased small scale industrial activitiesare often considered by policy makersas “backward, non-prestigious and non-sustainable”. This is also reflected inthe fact that budget allocations are of-ten relatively small, few support sys-tems exist for these activities (creditschemes and other incentives) and littleresearch is carried out to assist thesmall scale industrial activities. Moreactivities should be undertaken to sup-port these biomass energy based smallscale industries.

However, one should be careful not tomake biomass energy an end in itself.The sustainability of the industries aswell as support programmes to the in-dustries should also be considered byall stakeholders involved, e.g. govern-ment organizations, the communitiesand the private sector. Some of theissues which should be addressed bothbefore and during the introduction ofimproved industrial and institutionalstoves are:

• The position and experience of thetarget group or “customer”, both withregard to external and internal factors,and different and opposing prioritiesthat may exist within the industry orinstitution—owner and managementversus labour, male versus female, etc.;

• The real situation with regard tofuel supply, raw material supply, labour,ownership, decision making processes,to whom the economic and/or financialbenefits accrue. Besides, there may bevariations and/or changes (real andanticipated) in the near future in energysupplies. These need to be consideredas they can influence investments instove technologies;

• Entrepreneurs need time to makedecisions about their technology andinvestments and this has to be takeninto account during programme sched-uling;

• Reliability is of the utmost impor-tance to industries and institutions indeciding on investments in their enter-prise;

• Advisory services (stove, fuel, etc.)are often required but these are nor-mally expensive and there is therefore aneed to look for integration with othersectors: services/credit, backup andmaintenance services; standardizationof stoves and pots, commercialization,etc. In this connection thought shouldbe given to the transfer of competencerather than the transfer of hardware

The workshop provided a firm basis forfollow-up action, both at the national aswell as international level. The work-shop proceedings, including sugges-tions for follow-up action, is being final-ized. For further information please con-tact RWEDP.

Gender and Wood Energy in Asia

A Regional Expert Consultation on Gen-der and Wood Energy in Asia was con-ducted from 28 to 30 June in ChiangMai, Thailand. The 33 participants camefrom 13 countries (2/3 were male and1/3 female). The importance attachedto the meeting was illustrated by therepresentation of five countries at DG-level, as well as addresses by the ADGand Regional Representative of FAO inthe Asia-Pacific region, the Chief of theAsia-Pacific Forestry Desk of FAOHeadquarters in Rome, and the DeputyVice-Governor of Chiang Mai Province.Excellent expert inputs were obtainedfrom Mrs. Govind Kelkar (AIT Bangkok),Uraivan Tan-Kim-Yong (Chiang MaiUniversity) and Margaret Skutsch(Twente University in the Netherlands).

The programme consisted of plenarysessions, case studies, videos andgroup discussions, as well as field ob-servations at the Upland Social For-estry Project of Doi Sam Muan. AllRWEDP staff attended the Consulta-tion, and Mr. Conrad Heruela facilitatedsome of the sessions. In the eveninghours, participants had the opportunityto interact with delegates from the re-gion in the FAO Senior Field ProjectOfficers Meeting. Some of the inputsand results of the Expert Consultationare briefly reported in the current issueof Wood Energy News. The Consulta-tion will be followed by in-depth trainingactivities on a sub-regional and nationalbasis.

page 18 Wood Energy News

Publications Reviewplain the national policies, programmesand experiences of Chile, Indonesia,Sweden, France and the United States.

The introductory section of the volumewarns that “until recently, foresters wereoften concerned to manage forests forthe sustained yield only of timber orwoody products.” It further states that “ifsustainable forest management is con-cerned with the production of woodalone, then the other goods and ser-vices that can be obtained as well as thewider social issues that may be involved,are neglected.” In order to avoid suchissues, “the concept of sustainable for-est management, therefore, must in-clude the place of forests and trees inplanned land use.” The papers includedin this publication could provide an ef-fective and constructive basis for thedevelopment of policies andprogrammes that will lead to sustain-able forest management.

These papers have been synthesized ina companion volume “The challenge ofsustainable forest management: whatfuture for the world’s forests?” for a non-technical audience, including decision-makers and concerned members of thegeneral public.

FAO Forestry Paper 122, 1994. Avail-able from FAO, Rome

Woodfuel Productivity ofAgroforestry Systems in Asia, AReview of Current Knowledge

This document presents a review of thecurrently available but greatly scatteredknowledge on the woodfuel productioncapabilities of traditional and newagroforestry systems. The author ar-gues that agroforestry is a sustainableand productive form of land use and thatproper land use evaluation and plan-ning requires quantitative knowledge ofproductive capabilities of land. Woodfuel(fuelwood and charcoal)—a majorsource of energy and expected to re-main so in rural areas of the developingcountries—is now recognized as animportant product of agroforestry sys-

Readings in sustainable forestmanagement

This is a collection of technical paperson sustainable forest management con-tributed by various authors. The volumeis published with the aim of providingprofessional foresters and others withvaluable technical information relevantto their work.

The first part consists of nine papersand focuses on system developmentfor sustainable forest management.Grouped under the broad heading“Wood Production and Wood for En-ergy”, three papers cover the followingtopics: sustainable management oftropical moist forests for wood; the man-agement of woodlands and savannahsin the Sudano-Sahelian zone; and thesustainable management of plantationforests in the tropics and subtropics.The remaining papers deal with a num-ber of important issues such as forestmanagement and protection, bio-diversity, soil and water conservation,wildlife management, and climatechange.

The second part focuses on the cre-ation of a supportive environment forsustainable forest management. Threepapers deal with policy, legal and insti-tutional issues, with socio economicissues, and with research aspects. Theremaining five papers in this part ex-

tems. This contradicts the earlier viewsof forests as the most importantwoodfuel supplier, as the author showsthat a major part of the woodfuel origi-nates from trees on non-forest land,mostly from some kinds of agroforestrysystems. He further states that the con-tribution of agroforestry systems to en-ergy supply will be much more promi-nent as these system expands.

The review provides some indicationsand guidelines as to what output ofwoodfuel is to be expected in a givensituation. The focus of this paper isprimarily local farmers with average orbelow average resources who form themajority of rural agricultural populations.The data and discussions presented inthe paper are of a general nature butcan be relevant also to large scale en-terprises with higher inputs.

The review concentrates particularly onRWEDP member countries. It categori-cally identifies the limitations of dataconcerning agroforestry. Besides a briefreview of the current woodfuel situationin Asia, it covers other areas such aswoodfuel demand and supply sourcesand the importance of wood energy intotal energy consumption/supply. It alsotries to present woodfuel productiondata according to broad climatic andstructural classifications of the areaswhere agroforestry has been practised,together with possible options and limi-tations of estimating the volume ofwoodfuel production as well as the pro-ductivity of agroforestry trees.

Written by Michael Jensen, FAO-RWEDP Field Document FD 45. Avail-able from the RWEDP secretariat.

Vol.10 No.2, June 1995 page 19

Events

Date, Venue

28-29 Aug 1995Bangkok, Thailand

4–29 Sep 1995Canberra, Australia

9 Oct–10 Nov 1995Enschede/Maastricht,The Netherlands

16 Oct–8 Dec 1995Canberra & Gympie,Australia

18-20 Oct 1995Bangkok, Thailand

22 Oct–4 Nov 1995Wageningen, TheNetherlands

30 Oct–24 Nov 1995Bangkok, Thailand

5–18 Nov 1995Wageningen, TheNetherlands

6 Nov–8 Dec. 1995Canberra, Australia

20–24 Nov 1995Melbourne, Australia

29 Jan–23 Feb 1996Canberra, Australia

Event , Description (Info)

Energy Technology , conferenceEnergy conservation and management, renewable energy, energy policy and planning, environ-mental issues related to energy utilization (ASEAN)

Environmental Assessment for Development Projects , short courseEnvironmental screening of projects, identification and scoping of environmental impacts, andenvironmental appraisal in project design, monitoring and evaluation (ANUTECH)

Energy Management in Small and Medium Scale Industries , training programmeEnhanced management capabilities for small and medium scale industries in developingcountries in general, and with respect to the role of energy, energy supply, choice of fuels andmachinery, energy efficiency/conservation and relevant policy options and strategies (UT/MSM)

Forestry Planning & Management Course , 8-week courseModern concepts of environmentally sustainable development: plantation development and themanagement of indigenous forests, project planning and management (ANUTECH)

Income Generation through Community Forestry , international seminarOpportunities for and constraints on income generation for rual people in community forestry,strategies to enhance rural incomes, and in management, distribution and allocation of incomefrom community forestry activities (RECOFTC)

Environmental Assessment for Sustainable Land Use , international courseAnalysis, explanation and design of solutions for environmental problems by the use of the‘Problem-in-Context’ framework (IAC)

Community Forestry Extension , training courseExtension skill for participatory community forestry, for middle management personnel inforestry departmnets and community forestry programs (RECOFTC)

Gender in Policy Development for Sustainable Land Use , international courseInformation, wider viewpoints and tools required to conceptualize, plan and formulate policiesfrom a gender perspective in the field of sustainable development (IAC)

Environmental Management: A Gender-balanced Approach , short courseThis course aims to foster the development of plans, practices and policies which encouragegender-balanced environmental management within a framework of sustainable developmentprinciples (ANUTECH)

Energy, Environment and Economics , international symposiumExchange of knowledge, ideas and plans for the future in policy, efficiency, economics andenvironmental effects of energy production, utilisation and conversion (MELBOURNE)

Geographic Information Systems for Resource Decisions , short courseUnderstanding the principles and potential of GIS as a tool in resource management, hands onskills in the development and use of GIS for resource and environmental data, skills in theapplication of GIS in real world decisions for resource management and planning (ANUTECH)

ANUTECH: ANUTECH/Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia. ( (61-6) 249 5671, 249 0617,2 249 5875, 257 1433

ASEAN: ASEAN Conference on Energy Technology, School of Energy and Materials, King Mongkut’s Institute of TechnologyThonburi, Bangmod, Rasburana, Bangkok 10140, Thailand. ( (66-2) 427 8094, 2 427 9062

IAC: International Agricultural Centre, P.O. Box 88, 6700 AB Wageningen. ( (31-8370) 90111, 2 18552MELBOURNE: Symposium on EEE, Faculty of Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia, 3052.RECOFTC: Regional Community Forestry Training Center, Kasetsart University, P.O. Box 1111, Bangkok 10903, Thailand.

( (66-2) 579-0108, 561-4881, 2 561-4880UT/MSM: University of Twente/Maastricht School of Management, Course Administrator, VOK/CT 1799, University of Twente,

P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. ( (31-53) 893539, 2 340822,: g.l.stassen-tevelde@tdg.utwente.nl

Group portrait during the Expert Consultations on Gender and Wood Energy

Women firing the stoves kiln in Myanmar