You Grow Girl: Women as Protectors of Global Plant Biodiversity
Keywords:
Biodiversity, Gender, Gender Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Sustainability, Environmental Science, Agro-biodiversity, Climate Justice, Agriculture, Conservation, Political Ecology, Ecology, Eco-feminism, EcosystemsAbstract
As conservation biologists declare that we are in the midst of a mass extinction, national and international efforts to preserve genetic diversity have accelerated. Biodiversity is crucial for ongoing food security, sustainable agricultural development, and the prevention of food poverty. Research has been conducted to discover the key players in conservation, with the results consistently showing that women bear the load of biodiversity management worldwide. This is not the result of a deeper intrinsic connection to nature, but rather the result of culturally and socially determined roles of care. Gendered knowledge of the environment has been recorded all over the world, and should be recognized if we are to realistically face the catastrophe of mass extinction.
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