We are a network established to advocate for a right to a healthy environment for all. We believe that Living in Harmony with Nature needs to take into account the roles and contributions of women and girls to achieve transformative change. This requires addressing gender equity and needs to embrace the holistic solutions and the recognition of women’s human rights to achieve it.
Our work involves building synergies around the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and other international arenas to provide direction for more coherent and inclusive processes while ensuring their proper implementation.
In collaboration with our partners, we campaign to amplify the importance in recognising the roles and contributions of women in biodiversity conservation and environmental sustainable future. We do this through various social media outlets, video documentation and various campaigns.
We provide analysis and bring experiences from the local to the global-level in advocating for women’s rights to biodiversity conservation. We do this by advocating to policymakers and by supporting our members participation in decision-making processes.
We provide expertise and training to women and women’s rights organisations to strengthen their work on human rights and gender justice for a rights-based approach to biodiversity conservation for a just, sustainable future for all.
Our network comprises of members and strategic partners. The network provides a platform for sharing knowledge and expertise and brings together various sectors with the intersectionality of gender and the environment looking from the nexus of biodiversity and women’s rights. The networks collectively bring together voices from the local to the global discussions on biodiversity conservation and advocates to bring forth good practices to contribute to the global biodiversity discussions.
DIRECTOR | INDIA
As Women4Biodiversity director and UN CBD Women’s Caucus co-coordinator, Mrinalini draws from her experience as an international expert on biodiversity and gender, having worked several years in advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and women and youth in various local to global dialogues. She strongly believes in the ground-level up movement and the strength of communities’ experiences and voices. She supports and advocates for the full, effective and meaningful participation of women and believes they are not only the key rights holders but that they are also a key for a transformative and just society.
An indigenous woman herself, Mrinalini worked extensively with indigenous peoples before she focused on gender, which she sees inextricably linked with the indigenous experience and as an issue that cuts across sectors. She served as an indigenous advisor and gender expert for different organizations.
She holds an MA in Sustainable Development from Chiang Mai University.
PROGRAMME OFFICER | INDIA
Shruti Ajit has been working on research and documentation of community-led and community -based conservation all her working life. She began her journey in 2015 with Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group which aimed to challenge the dominant narrative of exclusionary conservation through inclusive policies and evidence building. She has also worked on issues of pastoral communities and had initiated a process of documenting the articulation of Raika women in Rajasthan, India. An active proponent of gender issues, she has been engaged with processes of gender and forest Rights at national and regional levels. She has also been engaged with ICCA Consortium and co-coordinates activities at global and regional levels. She is part of the core group of Global Youth Biodiversity Network, India chapter and has been engaging with youth in building awareness and participation on issues of biodiversity conservation in India. While her interest lies in the intersectionalities between social and ecological justice, Shruti could also be seen getting excited about watching an elephant in the wild, reveling over the history and anthropology of food that she is party to wherever she travels and being enchanted by storytellers who have the knack of orally transferring their knowledge systems from one generation to another.
Shruti has an MA in Development from Azim Premji University, India, and a BA in Journalism and Communication from Manipal University.
UN CBD WOMEN’S CAUCUS COORDINATOR | MEXICO
Amelia Arreguin has extensive experience in capacity development, advocacy, project management, and political communication, which she uses to advocate for gender and intergenerational justice in the environment, both at the international and national level.
She has founded EcoMaxei, a Mexican environmental NGO with focus on women and human rights. She also co-founded Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) – Mexico and coordinated GYBN Latin America and the Caribbean. Additionally, she is part of IUCN’s Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP), as well as a member of IUCN’s Commission on Education and Communication (CEC).
Currently, she is pursuing her MSc in Environment and International Development at the University of East Anglia as a Chevening Scholar in the UK. She also holds a BA in Communications Sciences (Specialized in Political Communication) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER | NEPAL
Sumina is a communications professional with more than six years of experience working in both development organisations and the private sector. She grew up in a house where there were more books than any other treasures. As a result, her affinity towards words began at an early age. A storyteller by heart, she loves to combine her passion for human rights with storytelling through visual media that showcases human-interest stories.
Sumina is a former Open Society Foundation / University of Essex scholar and holds a MA degree in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity from the University of Essex, the UK.
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER | PHILIPPINES
Prior to W4B, Claire worked as communications officer for the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), where she took an interest in the intersectionality of issues on mainstreaming biodiversity across sectors, including women. For the past ten years, she has done research, documentation, and written communication materials for development projects on labour and migration, peace and conflict resolution, and community-based enterprises and livelihood, among others. She focused on biodiversity conservation and restoration after she fell in love with writing success stories on community-led protected area management through consultancy projects and through her travels and writings on communities with conservation-centered and sustainable tourism. She shares some of these stories on her blog, iamtravelinglight.com, as well as in online publications.
Claire holds a BA in Communications Research at the College of Mass Communication in the University of the Philippines.
FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR | ARGENTINA
Angeles has ten years working in the private sector, in multinational and small companies. Her experience achieves financial services, financial analysis, and administration.
When she was at university she had a subject called Social Investment Project. She liked this subject very much because it related hard data (quantitative aspects) with current social issues (qualitative aspects). She then realized she wanted to focus her career on this area.
Angeles is currently studying for a Master’s degree in Assessment in Investment Projects (social and private) at Centro de Estudios Macroeconómicos de Argentina University (UCEMA). She holds a BA in Economics at Universidad Nacional de General San Martín, with a background in sociology for being a university social sciences analyst from Salvador University (USAL).
"There is little data on recognising the role of #women in #biodiversity #conservation. Limited literature and examples available. We are slowly talking about it in the context of climate change and biodiversity but we still have a long way to go." Ms Ajit further stated.
2
English
Español
Français