Monrovia, Liberia — To engage women, youth, and marginalized groups in sustainable forest management, the European Union-funded Leh Go Green initiative has conducted a gender training session in five counties. The project’s commitment to integrating gender equality into community livelihoods and natural resource governance demonstrated by the training, was conducted in Bopolu and Zwedru.
In order to improve forest-based livelihoods and sustainable management in the Gola and Grebo-Krahn ecosystems, the Leh Go Green program recognizes women, youth, and vulnerable groups as crucial partners. However, persisting gender gaps continue to limit their participation in forest governance and livelihood opportunities like agroforestry, beekeeping, and Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs).
The Leh Go Green project’s gender specialist, Chrystal-Angel Wardlow, stated that restrictive social norms and women’s restricted decision-making power can make conservation initiatives less successful as such, the training goal is to give community members the tools to not only identify these gaps but actively dismantle them, ensuring that forest management benefits are shared equitably.
According to Wardlow, incorporating female responsibility into local forest governance structures is crucial in the long run, addig that by empowering community members to monitor and report gender results, “we are building a sustainable framework for change that extends far beyond a single training session. We are moving from awareness to concrete action.”
By supporting the leadership and economic inclusion of women and marginalized groups, the Leh Go Green project aims to increase agroforestry productivity, fortify Community Conservation Agreements, and ensure the long-term sustainability of conservation outcomes in Liberia’s crucial forest landscapes.
The training which focused on four core areas were atteded by 26 people including members of the Community Forest Management Body (CFMB) from Lofa, Grand Gedeh, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, and River Gee Counties, as well as youth representatives and both male and female forest users.
Topics cover during the training includes, Increasing understanding of gender roles and their impact on access to forest resources, Promoting women’s leadership in community enterprises, forest user groups, and Community Conservation Agreement (CCA) structures. Other are Building capacity to identify and address gender gaps in community forest governance and Strengthening gender accountability mechanisms and identifying community gender focal points
