From silent spring to vocal vanguard.

• Position: Women's role in the global environmental movement - Includes related articles

Wildlife and humans the world over are carrying vast numbers of measurable man-made chemicals in their bodies that were never in anyone's body before the 1920s. There is now undeniable evidence that a female shares some of these chemicals with her baby, in her womb, and during breast feeding--chemicals that are capable of interfering with the natural chemical messengers the body produces to tell the baby how to develop."

--Dr. Theo Colborn

World Wildlife Fund

Since 1962, when American author Rachel Carson alerted the world to the dangers of pesticide poisoning in her ground-breaking book "Silent Spring", women have played a vital role in the global environmental movement. In 1988, the World Commission on Environment and Development, headed by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, published its report, "Our Common Future", linking the environmental crisis to unsustainable development and financial practices that were worsening the North-South gap, with women making up a majority of the world's poor and illiterate.

The United Nations Development Programme has defined sustainable development as development that not only generates economic growth, but distributes its benefits equitably, that regenerates the environment rather than destroying it, and that empowers people rather than marginalizing them. It is development that gives priority to the poor, enlarging their choices and opportunities and providing for their participation in decisions that affect their lives.

In a report written in preparation for the Earth Summit+5 meeting, the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) said, "The imperatives of the global economy seem to be outrunning the post-Rio agenda five years later. How to bring them into closer step is the current challenge." Women are calling for gender-sensitive research in this area. They are also calling for increased access to resources--land, credit, education, technology and information--so that they can participate equally with men in key decisions that affect their lives and all life on planet Earth.

Women are also demanding that Governments establish new forms of economic accounting to include women's unpaid work and promote public policies that will reduce the disproportionate time women spend working, which is often twice as much as men. In addition, women want Governments to meet the goals set at the Microcredit Summit, held in Washington, D.C., the United States, in February 1997, to provide $21.7 billion in micro-credit funds to enable 100 million of the world's poorest people to achieve self-employment by the year 2005.

Management of natural resources

In Africa, Asia, Latin America and other developing regions, women are often the primary users and managers of land, forest, water and other natural resources. Women in rural areas of developing regions spend major parts of their day growing food, gathering fuelwood, cooking and carrying water.

Women are responsible for most local food production in Africa and Asia. Consequently, they are responsible for the selection of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides and the maintenance of productive soil to nourish seedlings and plants. Women are also users, preservers and managers of biodiversity. Research on 60 home gardens in Thailand revealed 230 different species--many of which had been rescued from a neighbouring forest before it was cleared.

Indigenous women have a special relationship to natural resources. Their cultures and practices promote a balanced, respectful use and preservation of natural resources so that future generations can meet their needs. Yet, most development schemes today ignore the needs and practices of indigenous peoples.

As consumers and producers, caretakers of their families and educators, women play an important role in promoting sustainable development through their concern for the quality and sustainability of life for present and future generations. However, due to discrimination, many women are unable to exercise their full potential in natural resource and environmental...