‘Empower women to manage resources'

NEW DELHI: Given that the burden of environmental degradation is largely borne by the female population living within and at the periphery of forests, the government has suggested to empower women to ensure sustenance of natural resources.

"It is essential that women play a greater role in the management of natural resources," official sources said quoting the National Environment Policy (NEP), which was recently approved by the Union Cabinet.

While they (women) have to bear the burden of natural resources degradation, they have little control over the management of these resources, the sources said.

The principal and direct cause of forest loss has been the conversion of forests for cultivation, settlement, infrastructure and industry, they said.

Forests provide a multiplicity of environmental services. Recharging of mountain aquifers, which sustain the rivers of the country. They also conserve the soil and prevent floods and drought. They provide habitat for wildlife and the ecological conditions for maintenance and natural evolution of genetic diversity of flora and fauna, they said.

Woods yield timber, fuel wood, and other forest produce and possess immense potential for economic benefits, in particular for local communities, the sources said.

"National Environment Policy seeks an important role of women in the management to extend the forest coverage and fill the gaps that exists... It does not intend to displace other policies but builds on them," the sources said.