1. Paper presented at Bandung+60 Asian-African Conference
Gender Seminar
Trisakti University, Jakarta, 30 October 2015
Gender Mainstreaming in Forest Governance: Lessons from Asia
Yanti (T) Kusumanto,a Bhawana Upadhyay,b and Ratchada Arpornsilpc
a
Corresponding author (yanti@tykusumanto.nl); TYK research and action consulting,
Netherlands
b
RECOFTC
c RECOFTC
Keywords: Gender Mainstreaming , Forest, Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment, Asia,
Forest Governance, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand
Abstract
Even until today, two decades after the official recognition by UN member states at the
Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 to mainstream gender in the policy
process, there is little consensus about the efficacy of gender mainstreaming as strategy
towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. This arbitrariness is peculiar, as from
conception on, gender mainstreaming has held the radical promise to place gender at the core
of all stages of the policy process (from conception, development, legislation,
implementation, to evaluation), at all levels (including local, national, and international levels),
and across all sectors and issue-areas. This writing aims to contribute to this debate by
discussing the results of a study that looked into the extent to which forest policies are gender
mainstreamed. While the paper covers Indonesia, Nepal, and Thailand, the study makes part
of a larger study commissioned by the FAO and conducted by RECOFTC (The Center for
People and Forests) in Asia and the Pacific region during 2013. For this paper, the three
countries are chosen to represent distinct country contexts and ‘progress levels’ of gender
mainstreaming as resulted from our study.
We reviewed forest-related laws and policies (e.g. national forest law; social forestry policy)
and gender mainstreaming policies pertaining to forests (e.g. quota for women with decision-
making authority; gender equity and social inclusion strategy). Furthermore, we examined the
institutional and operational conditions in which gender mainstreaming was adopted,
organisational structures were put in place, and policy implementation was carried out.
Where gender mainstreaming had less progressed, we found that in spite of government
endorsement of gender mainstreaming, forest policies per se did not necessarily incorporated a
gender perspective. We connected this flaw to conceptual confusion among government
officials, a serious lack of sex-disaggregated data, and the absence of systematic gender
analysis in forestry planning and programming. These factors compromise policymakers’
understanding of the different yet interconnected ways in which women and men relate to
forests, and how these might imply for forestry planning and programmes. Based on our
findings, we argue that the gender mainstreaming policy process prior to implementation
tended to consume most rhetoric and attention, besides substantial resources, at the expense
of the deliverance of tangible solutions for real problems through implementation. We think
therefore that gender mainstreaming should put proportionate efforts and resources into
policy development as well as implementation with vigorous monitoring and evaluation

2. mechanisms to measure impact and outcomes in terms of gender equality and women’s
empowerment.
Forests play vital roles in the planet´s social and environmental resilience. In the Global
South, the number of people depending on forests for their livelihoods and in some way
utilising and managing forests, comes close to 1.25 billion (FAO, 2014). About half of them
are women and girls. In the coming Bandung+60 Asian-African Conference, where
inequalities and inequities among peoples will be a major focus, this paper could offer an
enriching learning how to deal equally and fairly with all.