Plans Underway to Establish Women in Conservation Caucus, NRT Conservancies Chapter

For decades, Northern and Coastal Kenya’s remote, arid landscape and patriarchal society has made it difficult for women to thrive. Conservation policies over the years have also paid little attention to gender issues, preventing women from benefiting from conservation-related action compared to men.

In the fight against climate change, we cannot afford to have women left out of the conversation and left behind. Effective and sustainable conservation can only be achieved when both men and women are engaged in natural resource management and when all parties are involved in conservation and communal management of protected areas decisions. Thanks to the formation of community conservancies and continual sensitization by different stakeholders, and now the creation of a women in conservation caucus, the narrative will soon change across the NRT landscape, and women will be involved in decisions pertaining to conservation.

In May, NRT, in partnership with Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy in Africa, and USAID Kenya, hosted 60 participants from NRT member conservancies at the NRT Coast headquarters in Lamu for the second Women Leadership Summit. The Summit was held to empower women, improve their participation in conservation, promote diversity in leadership and improve gender equality in community conservation.

During the Summit, a proposal was made to establish a women in conservation caucus with a structure customized for NRT member conservancies. The initiative is to be adopted at regional level to amplify women’s voices in leadership and conservation across the NRT landscape.

Regional heads were tasked with implementing the proposed structure and reporting on the progress made in establishing regional women caucuses at the next Summit.

The NRT chapter of the Women in Conservation Caucus will incorporate women from the regional level, NRT Gender Caucus and NRT’s Gender Advisory Committee.

Through the structure, women in northern and coastal Kenya will now have opportunities to take up leadership roles and influence decision-making processes concerning local natural resources, community development, and governance.