Gender, youth and social inclusion

RMFN–Asia aims to address the inequitable economic and social relations of women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized groups in forest landscapes and ensure that projects and processes avoid impinging on customary rights. We will improve the representation of marginalized groups in decision-making processes and in programme and project negotiations, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Tactics may include building the capacities of women and other marginalized groups to participate in decision-making processes, ensuring that women play leadership roles and creating self-help or entrepreneurial groups for youth, women and other marginalized people.

RMFN–Asia’s commitment to youth inclusion includes building and maintaining connections with schools, colleges and universities. Including young people is key to the sustainability of forest landscapes. Older generations can teach them their traditional skills and pass on ecological knowledge and, in turn, the younger generation can share with older people what they have learned in urban educational institutions, especially regarding innovative technological approaches. 

As Model Forests can enable governments and decision makers to test new policies or programmes before scaling up, our focus on gender, youth and social inclusion is critical to ensure that wider policy processes consider marginalized groups.

Find out more on what is happening in the Model Forests of Asia