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.
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.
DIRECTOR | INDIA
As Women4Biodiversity director, 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.
MEDIA & 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.
VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER | INDIA
Deepika is an artist from Bengaluru, India whose practice explores using found objects and natural, sustainable materials. When she’s not outside collecting leaves, seeds, and other curiosities, she’s drawing them. Her fascination with the natural world began with observing ants as a child. Now, she uses her art to communicate about the fascinating life around her. She investigates the biosphere and how humans interact with it using location and context-specific media and visuals. She hopes her curiosity is contagious and her work inspires sustainability and conservation.
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).
POLICY ASSOCIATE | LATIN AMERICA REGION, PERU
Alejandra is a specialist in agroforestry, currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Forestry Conservation. She is focusing her research in dry, montane and andean forests, to improve the management and conservation of these ecosystems. She also dedicates herself in advocating for the rights of youth and women, as she is convinced that the full recognition of the rights and desires of the youth, women and indigenous people, will help achieve equity, integration and respect between humans and other living beings.
RESEARCH AND POLICY ASSOCIATE | INDIA
Meenal Tatpati is a researcher with a keen interest in the jurisprudence and governance mechanisms of forests. Her earliest work has been with research and advocacy on the implementation of the Forests Rights Act in India and its relevance in the governance of Protected Areas and the unrealised potential of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) provisions. Some of the highlights of her work have been documenting the life stories of the women of the Dongria Kondh community in Odisha, India and the Raika pastoralist community in Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary. Meenal also coordinated the national-level Community Forest Rights Learning and Advocacy Process from 2014 to 2017 in India. She was part of the global Academic Activist Coproduced Knowledge in Environmental Justice (ACKNOWL-EJ) network of academic scholars engaged in action and collaborative research with local communities on environmental issues, and part of the Rangelands and Pastoralism Territories of Life Group within the ICCA (Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas)-Consortium as a research associate. Meenal has an LLB and a Master in Environmental Sciences. Away from work, she is an amateur birdwatcher and photographer and is also learning not to take herself too seriously!
PRESIDENT
Ms. Kaeophokha has completed a Duel-Masters Degree dual-campus programme called Asian Peace Builders Scholarship Programme (APS) which was assisted by the Nippon Foundation. She has been working in Internatinal Development for over 15 years with NGOs, INGOs and UN Agencies in Thailand. She has a background in Migration and Refugee, Environment, Development and Peace Building. Currently, she works with Spirit in Education Movement (SEM) as the Senior Programme Officer, and currently based in Bagkok. She also occasionally also undertakes independent consulting with various agencies.
VICE PRESIDENT
Ms. Donchaum is the Senior Program Offer at FHI 360 in Thailand. She is based in Chiang Mai Thailand. She holds a MAster in Sustainable Development, through Social Science Faculty of Chiangmai University, Thailand. She has experience working with local, national, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for more than ten years in healthcare and other social related issues such as working with People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV), Injecting drug users (IDUs), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT), women, children, and other marginalized groups.Address: Chiang Mai View Place Condominium 2, Building D, Room #506, 92/38, Moo 1, T. Pa daet, A, Muang Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai 50100, Thailand
SECRETARY
Ms. Wongnithisathaporn is the Environment Officer at AIPP Foundation. She is based in Chiang Mai. She has worked many years in supporting the advocacy work around rights of indigenous peoples’ at the national and international level. She focuses her work around community development and traditional knowledge and engages in different international arena including biodiversity and climate related policy spaces.
