Gender and Natural Resource Management: Livelihoods, Mobility and Interventions

There has been no book published in the last decade that takes a synoptic look at gender–environment issues while bridging theoretical, policy and practice concerns. This book will both fill that gap and bring the debate up to date.
— Melissa Leach, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK

I will use it in the course I teach on gender and natural resources. The book will also be excellent for more general courses on environmental or natural resource management that want to include a gender perspective.
— Margreet Zwarteveen, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

This book is about the gender dimensions of natural resource exploitation and management, with a focus on Asia. It explores the uneasy negotiations between theory, policy, and practice that are often evident within the realm of gender, environment, and natural resource management, especially where gender is understood as a political, negotiated, and contested element of social relationships. It offers a critical feminist perspective on gender relations and natural resource management in the context of contemporary policy concerns: decentralized governance, the elimination of poverty, and the mainstreaming of gender.

Through a combination of strong conceptual argument and empirical material from a variety of political, economic and ecological contexts (including Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam), the book examines gender–environment linkages within shifting configurations of resource access and control. The book will serve as a core resource for students of gender studies and natural resource management, and as supplementary reading for a wide range of disciplines including geography, environmental studies, sociology, and development. It also provides a stimulating collection of ideas for professionals looking to incorporate gender issues within their practice in sustainable development.

The editors

Bernadette P. Resurreccion is assistant professor in gender and development studies at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

Rebecca Elmhirst is senior lecturer in human geography at the University of Brighton, UK.