Essay on the role of woman in protecting natural resources
Answers
Both women and men are consumers, exploiters and managers of natural resources. Degradation of forests, watersheds, foreshores and agricultural land have a severe effect on women as they have a high degree of dependence on the natural environment to perform their daily household tasks.
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In many less developed countries, women are the ones who collect fuel, fodder and food from trees and other plants. As in the case of agriculture, women see forest resources as multifunctional and use them in various forms to meet basic family needs.
Most household energy in the less developed countries is still generated by burning wood and other biomass, most of it is collected by women and young girls. Besides fuel, women collect and process many wood forest products such as fodder, fiber, nuts, vegetables and wild fruits. Further, they use forest products to make household items such as bowls, mats and baskets.
Environmental destruction and degradation in the LDCs inevitably increase the labour of rural women. For example, because of deforestation as well as increasingly less open-access land, it has become more difficult for women to collect fuel wood and other forest products.