Gender Climate Change in the Himalayas

8/14/2019 Gender Climate Change in the Himalayas

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Photo: Women in Mustang Nepal, by Dechenla Sherpa

Climate Change in the Himalayas:the Womens Perspective

By Brigitte Leduc, Gender Specialist

-

for CAPWIP Congress on Gender, Climate Change and

Disaster Risk Reduction


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1. Living in the Himalayas

2. Womens Ex eriencesof Climate Change

.Peoples Resilience toClimate Change with a

Gender Perspective

4. Recommendations


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The

Himalayas


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Inhabitedby

over

210

millionspeople,amongstt emostmarg na ze an vulnerableoftheregion.

livelihoodislargelybasedonagricultureand

ves oc

ra s ngan

eexploitationofnatural

resources,smallscaletradeandmigration.


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IssuesoftheMountain

Environment

Remoteness

&

Isolation

limitedthelivelihood

options

PronetoNaturaldisasters

Con ictsover

natura

resources


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ClimatePro ections

for

the

Re ion

All of Asia is likely towarm around 4 oCabove baseline )

Warming theHimalayas well abovethe global mean

Extreme rainfalls aswell as drought eventsare likely to increase.

IPCC, 2007


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ImpactsonSnow,Glacieran Water

fasterin

recent

decades

formed

dangerous(GLOFs)

riverbasinsoftheHKH

concernabout1.3billion

peop e


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WATER TOWER OF SOUTH ASIA!Sustaining over 1.3 billions people in the River basinsmpac ng on oo an energy pro uc on o ons peop e

River basins Indus

Ganges

Brahmaputra

Salween

Mekong

Yellow

Tarim

mu arya


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NotEveryoneisAffected

Equallyby

Climate

Change

PeopledonotallhavethePeopledonotallhavethe

samecapacity

to

cope

and

same

capacity

to

cope

and

adapttoclimatechange.adapttoclimatechange.

VulnerabilitytoclimatechangeVulnerabilitytoclimatechange

dependson:

depends

on:

naturalnatural economic,economic, socialsocial

culturalfactors,

cultural

factors,

whichimpactonpeopleswhichimpactonpeoples

andpower.andpower.


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InAsia,

Poverty,Caste,Et n c tyan Genderareamongthehinderpeoplesresiliencetoclimatechange.


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Steep

slopes

make

the

burden

ofcollectingandcarrying

heavierandmoredangerous.

Thecombination

of

the

householdworkandproductiveworkintensifytheirworkload,

andtheincreasingmigrationofmenincreasefurthermore

e rwor oa .


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ClimateChangesImpactsor es rom ma ayan omen


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ve oo ase onlivestockraisingandlittlebitofa riculture

Harshwintersandlimitedpopulationisisolated6monthsayear.

Pronetoavalanches,floods,flashfloods,earthquakes.


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Men are herders or mi rate

Women play an important role in thecommunity early warning system.

They have put in place a flood monitoring

systems using stones.

people of their village and the ones living

in the villages down the hill by shouting

warning and using mirrors.

Women are then implementing their

rescue plan and protect people and

They clean the debris, rebuild the stonewalls in the river banks etc.


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ncrease occurrenceo as oo sandlandslidesaffectsgreatlypeopleslivelihoods.ManylivestockaremissingThealreadylimitedcultivatedlandisoftenwashedaway.Thewarmertemperaturealsocreatescropscomeintomaturityearlier;Mostofthes rin sthat rovideddrinkingwaterdisappeared


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Wintersarewarmersotheisolationperiodisreduced.Buttheglaciersaremeltingfasterand

as oo san an s esarefrequentlywashingawaythecommunicationsystem.

midAugustishappeningatdifferenttime;andthefloodsaremoreintense.

ofinsecuritysincewomenarelosingtheircapacitiestoforeseentheoccurrenceofanaturalhazardandre ucet e rcapac tytorespon ntime.


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Increased Occurrence of Natural

Drou hts increase womens workload and

sasters: erent u nera t es

stress as they have to travel fartherHimalayas glaciers are degrading more rapidly

= ac a a es u urs oo s

Intensification of Natural Disasters = coping

The poor are more at risk - as women are more

vulnerable to poverty, they are also more

vulnerable to natural disasters.Many more women victims: social norms and

, ,

norms, and the mode of decision making


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EarlyWarningandDisaster

Preparedness

Remotenessand

isolation

deprive

mountain

populationfromaccessingessential

informationaboutclimaterisks.

Mostdisasterpreparednessandmanagement

addressthedifferentialvulnerabilitiesand

.


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WarmerWinter&

lessSnowfall

In the last 15 years, less snow

falls and shorter winter

.

In short term, positive impacts

agriculture

resources on the availability of

surface and underground

wa er an e green cover.


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are now growing inhigher altitude whichmeans a e er ershave to go farther for

grazing their animals.

Women are responsiblefor collecting fuel wood

and fodder, they haveto walk and carry theload on lon erdistances.


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DepletionofNaturalResources:IncreasedWorkload

The Himalayas has arich biodiversity that ishighly at risk becauseof global warming.

The changes in the

affect the resistanceand quality of natural

migration of somespecies to higher

the extinction of others.


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Women Manage Natural

Resources

health,as

well

as

their

livelihoods.

.

Women

collect

fuel

wood

and

medicinal

and

aromatic

, ,livestock;

.

Whilewomensroleisunderestimatedandtheyare.

sometimesevenforbiddentousesuchresources.


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,


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ve oo

ase

on

gr cu ure Foodsecurityfor4monthsayear


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Tradeof

Forest

Products

ContributingtoDeforestation


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Weneedtoim roveourcro stoincreaseto revent amine.Ourchildrenarecrying;theyarehungry


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WomensDrudgeryIncreasedduringMensMigration

ewor very ar an weare re , u weare v ng ere nthe

mountain.

What

can

we

do?


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FoodInsecurity:DifferentCopingStrategies

Men trade or migrate

Women are farmers: their

knowledge about seed selection

climate change adaptation.

Women rarely access landownership, technology, extension

,


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incorporateagender

perspective:

facedifferentproblems

payspeci icattentionto ot womensandmensneeds

inorder

to

reduce

their

vulnerability

andimprovetheiradaptation.


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Risks

of

resurgence

and

spread

of

tropical

Water

borne

diseases

to

increase Droughtschallengefoodsecurity=

malnutrition

Increasedwork

to

access

natural

resources

=

increasehardshi

d id f i


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IncreasedIncidenceofDiseasesDifferentialRisks

Different

risks

towards

different

diseases Different risks of malnutrition

Differentrisksvs NaturalDisasters

eren wor oa an s ress:womenareprimarilyresponsibleforthecareofchildren,

e

e er y,

an

e

s c


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Peoplesadaptationstrategies

Socioeconomicfactorsthanenhanceorinhibit

adaptation


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Ma nstream ngGen er nC mateChangeAdaptationStrategies


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Newtopic

=few

information

Naturalresourceswillbeaffectedintermof

Increasewomensdrudgery

Migrationis

an

alternative

livelihood

option


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Whoismorevulnerable?

yare eymorevulnerable?

n orma on

Infrastructure&services

Whatfactorsenhanceorinhibitadaptationto

Mobility

Capacitytomakechoices

andtakedecisions

control?


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HowMenandWomenAdapt?


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Research

Development

DisasterPreparedness

Strategies

Adaptationand

MitigationStrategies


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Socioeconomicimpactsofclimate

change Peoplesadaptationstrategiesandca acities

Sexdisaggregateddata Gendersensitivemethodologies

andindicators

to

measure

the

Preparationofcontextspecificscenarios scarcityofnaturalresources

potentialconflicts

foodinsecurity changeinagriculturepatterns dis lacement of o ulation

l


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NaturalDisasters

Preparedness

Disasterpreparednessplans

usually

focused

ontec n ca aspects

andaregenerally

.

Genderanalysisto

Involvingwomen

and

meninwarnin s stems


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Putahumanfaceon

climatechange

mitigation

andada tationstrate ies

Mainstreaminggenderintopoliciesands ra eg es o ene oandinvolvebothmenandwomen.

Environmentfriendly

technologiestoreduce


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GenderEquality:theEssential

ngre ent

Genderequalityandwomenempowermentare

essentialconditions

to

achieve

development

goals;

capacitiestofacethechallengesofclimatechange.

Womenrepresent

at

least

half

of

the

population

and

theworldcannotmeetthosechallengeswithouttheircontribution

climate

change

mitigation

and

adaptation

negotiations

inadvocatingtheintegrationofagenderperspective,focusingonpeoplesneedsandcapacity.


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1. Documentthegenderedimpactsofclimatechange

in

the

Himalayan

mountains

in

all

sectors.

2. Promote

equity

and

mainstream

gender

in

a aptationan mitigationstrategiesta ingintoaccounttheparticularchallenges

.

3. Mainstreamgenderandaddressmountain

and

involve

women

in

early

warning

systems.


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4.Promotegendersensitivedevelopmentinitiatives

tobuild

mountain

peoples

resilience

to

climate

c ange.

5.Facilitatemountainwomensaccessto

a ternativean renewa esourceso energy

withtheperspectivetoalleviatetheirworkload.

6.Promote

mountain

people

participation

in

climatechangenegotiationsandpolicymaking.


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.

inthe

preparation

of

national

climate

change

.

8.Con uctgen erana ysiso propose mitigationandadaptationtoclimatechange

ntervent ons

an

assess

t e r

mpacts

on

t e

mountainenvironment.


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9.Developeffectiveinformationchannelsto

reachout

to

mountain

women,

especially

in

,change.

10.Facilitateandequitableaccesstotechnologiesandother roductiveresourcestobuildmountain

peoplesresilience

to

climate

change

and

ensure

thatwomenneedsareproperlyaddressed.


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mountainpeople

by:

developmentandenvironment,

addressthoseissues,

buildin the ca acities in the re ion to address the

mountainissues,

andsu ortin re ionaldialo ueandcoo eration.

Th k


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Thank ou

Documents

Gender Climate Change in the Himalayas