WOCAN organized the scoping dialogue in partnership with The Forest Dialogue (TFD) on Scoping Dialogue on the Exclusion and Inclusion of Women in the Forestry Sector in Kathmandu, Nepal on September 22-24, 2012. Participants for the dialogues came from 15 different countries and from varied backgrounds such as academics, researchers, advocates from indigenous groups from Latin America and Asia, representatives from private sectors, financial institutes, development workers, donor agencies and women leaders.
The objective of the scoping dialogue was to better understand the constraints and perceived advantages of including women in the governance of natural resource management. The three day event consisted of introductory discussion, travel to field site in Chitwan District and dialogue with local people, then the final day was for reflection and group discussion on various topics such as benefits of being in women’s only group and mixed group, social barriers to women’s participation and business case for inclusion of women in forestry.
One of the key achievements from this dialogue was that, it was the first time in 10 years of TFD where the majority of participants were women. Hope this trend would be followed by more participation by women in the TFD.