REPORT SUMMARY
GENDER & ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE
OVERLOOKED AND UNDERESTIMATED This report provides the first synthesis and assessment of the gendered dynamics of the global illegal wildlife trade (IWT). It looks at gender-informed research, field evidence and concepts relating to poaching, trafficking and consumption of wildlife products, as well as international governance and policy. Building on this evidence base, it provides a practical “gender framework” to guide bringing gender analysis into IWT programmes, policies and interventions through a systematic investigation of gender dynamics in actors, drivers, impacts and responses. The report also identifies research needs and offers recommendations from local to global levels.
“Gender & Illegal Wildlife Trade, Overlooked and Underestimated” available July 2021. Author, Joni Seager For more information, contact: Rob Parry-Jones, Head, Wildlife Crime Initiative, WWF International rparryjones@wwfint.org
1 FAILING TO CONSIDER GENDER IN OUR APPROACHES TO IWT IS “TACKLING WILDLIFE CRIME WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND OUR BACK”. It results in huge gaps in understanding realworld IWT activities, processes and opportunities for intervention. Conversely, bringing gender analysis into IWT approaches improves the likelihood of conservation success and can be a catalyst for challenging social inequalities. For instance in the Kafue National Park region in Zambia, where some marginalised women have few livelihood opportunities and are forced to provide accommodation and sex to seasonal poachers, shame and secrecy protect the
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poacher’s identity and the woman’s reputation. Addressing this issue rooted in gender inequality can not only bolster efforts to tackle wildlife crime, but can also challenge the gender inequalities which enable it. Further, when gender is not considered, actions to curb IWT can entrench gender differences and inequalities, to the detriment both of women and conservation – instead of working towards simultaneously reducing IWT and enhancing gender equality.
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REPORT SUMMARY
GENDER & ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE OVERLOOKED AND UNDERESTIMATED
2 GENDER DIFFERENCES, NORMS AND INEQUALITIES ANCHOR AND SHAPE IWT AND THE RESPONSES TO IT. Because IWT takes place in a world defined by gender differentiation, the actors, practices, impacts, pressures and outcomes of IWT – as well as efforts to curb or eradicate it – are “gendered” too. Women and men participate differently in all domains of IWT, from poaching through to consumption and in policymaking, and often hold different attitudes. The costs and benefits of poaching, trafficking and consuming wildlife are different for men and women, as are the costs and benefits of curbing or ending IWT. We need to understand those differences in order to address IWT.
3 GENDER BLINDNESS GIVES A DISTORTED PICTURE. Men and women interact with their environment and natural resources differently, and typically have different environmental knowledge and experience. For instance, in some coastal communities, women are banned from fishing at sea, but spend time collecting resources along the shoreline. Gathering information about men only (or women only) produces unhelpfully skewed knowledge. To date, IWT knowledge is either gender-blind or heavily gender-skewed, without that skew being much recognized.
4 SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND GENDER INEQUALITY ARE FACILITATORS OF IWT AT MANY POINTS IN THE VALUE CHAIN.
5 ADDRESSING GENDER BENEFITS MEN TOO. Integrating thinking about gender includes addressing entrenched norms regarding men and masculinity. It is not uncommon for men to be bullied into poaching, by women or older men, through masculinity-shaming. The assumption that men are best suited for highly armed ranger work puts them at considerable risk. Highly masculinized enforcement often sours relationships with community members who might otherwise be allies; it also heightens the likelihood that enforcement will be violent, and may involve sexual abuse.
6 INCLUSIVE RANGER WORK AND ENFORCEMENT IS GENERALLY MORE EFFECTIVE. There is strong evidence that women are more likely than men to apply non-violent and negotiation-based approaches to resolving conflict.
7 ENGAGING WOMEN IS A WIN-WIN OF GENDER EQUALITY AND CONSERVATION. Gender equality is causally linked with social and environmental well-being: when gender inequality is high, typically so is environmental degradation. The social and economic structures that promote gender equality – inclusive decision-making and participation, acknowledgement of the positive effects of diversity, engaged and empowered citizenry, acknowledgement of universal human rights – are also prerequisites for environmental sustainability.
Numerous examples exist of sexual exploitation, prostitution of women and sex trafficking facilitating personal and commercial IWT transactions on local to global scales. Making visible the ways that genderbased violence is deployed in IWT opens pathways for challenging and changing these dynamics.
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REPORT SUMMARY
GENDER & ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE OVERLOOKED AND UNDERESTIMATED
8 CONSERVATION ORGANIZATIONS TACKLING IWT HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE LEADERS IN MAKING POSITIVE GENDER CHANGE.
11 CONSIDERABLY MORE GENDER RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS IS NEEDED ACROSS ALL THE DOMAINS OF ANTI-IWT WORK.
By demonstrating commitments to women’s empowerment and to gender inclusivity within their own projects and programmes, they can be powerful influencers in changing disempowering and damaging norms – particularly in poor, rural areas. Ensuring the benefits of conservation projects are distributed in ways that support gender equality and women’s empowerment improves conservation outcomes while supporting social progress. Gender equality, diversity and inclusion also make the work of conservation organizations smarter and more effective, improving organizational thinking, planning and outcomes.
Much of the existing evidence base relies on only a few studies. The patterns of power and differentiation that come into view through a gender lens also pertain to other identities such as race/ethnicity, class or religion, among others. There is almost no analysis of those dynamics in relation to IWT.
9 BRINGING GENDER INTO IWT WORK REFLECTS HIGH-LEVEL ASPIRATIONS – AND OBLIGATIONS.
12 GENDER ANALYSIS IS A TOOL, NOT A MAGIC WAND. It will not solve the problems of the unsustainable and violence-infused trade in wildlife. But it contributes to solutions by engaging a wider-angle understanding of problems, solutions and policies not offered elsewhere. It further enables IWT organizations to align their work with the human rights and diversity commitments already made across the conservation sector.
Gender equality is mandated in many national laws and organizational policies, and gender equality agendas are increasingly prominent in global policy commitments, including across the Sustainable Development Goals. Donors, both private and state, increasingly expect gender analysis to be conducted and operationalized in the programmes they support. However, leading entities in the IWT arena are out of this loop: there have been no calls yet for a genderinformed IWT response from the likes of CITES or in the various other UN or state-led declarations against IWT.
10 CONSUMPTION OF WILDLIFE IS HIGHLY GENDERED, BOTH AT LOCAL AND HIGH ELITE LEVELS. Men and women consume and purchase different wildlife products, for different purposes: women often are the primary household purchasers of wildlife-based medicinal products; men use wildlife consumption as a currency for cementing male social networks and business relationships. Demandreduction efforts will be amplified by taking such gender differences into account. 3|report summary
“Gender & Illegal Wildlife Trade, Overlooked and Underestimated” available July 2021. Author, Joni Seager For more information, contact: Rob Parry-Jones, Head, Wildlife Crime Initiative, WWF International rparryjones@wwfint.org
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