Women at the frontline of climate change

of collecting and carrying water, fuel wood and fodder for everyday sustenance.

The unequal gender division of labour is further skewed by climate change, as distances travelled by women increase to access natural resources (such as water, fuel wood, fodder, food, pastures, medicinal plants, fuel, and crops) and as production schedules take hits under rapidly changing environments and climate conditions. In fragile mountain ecosystems, women are rendered particularly vulnerable where the slopes of agricultural fields are steep, landslides and erosion are common and accessibility to basic services such as transport, education, health care and development services is limited. In such mountain contexts, women carry out and are chiefly responsible for the arduous and dangerous task

In addition, women have valuable indigenous knowledge about managing their environments, context-specific skills developed in response to mountain conditions, technical know-how in relation to agriculture, pastoralism, and forest and watershed management, and the ability to cope with the everyday changes brought about by climate and other drivers of change. Gendered indigenous knowledge also manifests itself in predictions and interpretations of local climate conditions given women’s labour and responsibilities that bring them in close and regular

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