Women, men and trees: Gender, power and property in forest and agrarian landscapes

This paper proposes a revision of the concept of property commonly associated with land in analyzing the gender dimensions of tree tenure. Unlike two-dimensional maps of land ownership, tree tenure is characterized by nested and overlapping rights, which are products of social and ecological diversity as well as the complex connections between various groups of people and resources. Such complexity implies that approaches to improving equity using concepts of property based on land may be too simplistic. Rather than incorportating both women and trees into existing property frameworks, we argue that a more appropriate approach would begin by recognizing legal and theoretical ways of looking at property that reflect the realities and aspirations of women and men as well as the complexity and diversity of rural landscapes. Through a selective review of the literature, particularly in Africa, and illustrative case studies based on our fieldwork, we explore the ''gendered'' nature of resource use and access with respect to trees and forests, and examine distinct strategies to address gender inequalities therein. A review of the theoretical and historical background of land tenure illustrates the limitations of ''two-dimensional'' maps associated with land tenure in delineating boundaries of nested bundles of rights and management of trees and forests by different actors. The introduction of gender adds another dimension to the analysis of the multidimensional niches in the rural landscape defined by space, time, specific plants, products, and uses. Gender is a complicating factor due to the unequal power relationships between men and women in most societies, These power relationships, however, are subject to change. Rather than adopting an artificial dichotomy between ''haves'' and ''have nots'' (usually linked with men and women, respectively, in discussions of land tenure), we argue that gendered domains in tree tenure may be both complementary and negotiable. If resource tenure regimes an: negotiable, they can be affected by changes in power relations between men and women. This idea has important policy implications, In many discussions of tenure, rights are often assumed to be exogenous or externally determined. The negotiability of tenure rights gives policy makers and communities another lever with which to promote a more equitable distribution of rights to the management and use of natural resources. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.