IN Fiyoaree, Maldives, Leena wakes up everyday just a little before sunrise for her morning prayer. She prepares breakfast for her family and gets her two children, nine-year-old Fathimah and five-year-old Ahmed, ready for school, which starts at 7:30am. Once she returns home, she tidies her house and takes care of the laundry before she heads out to her parents’ farm, located 1.5 kilometres away, to help water their vegetables.Approximately two hours later, Leena returns home to prepare lunch for her children.

Throughout the day, she juggles other household duties, including tending to her four-month-old baby, Moan, while her husband, a fisherman, is out at sea. At night, after she tucks her children in, Leena spends three hours making mats out of reeds that grow in nearby marshlands and wetlands.

Along with 30 other women in her village, 30-year-old Leena sells these multicoloured, woven mats to a cooperative in the capital, Malé. The co-op then sells the handicrafts to high-end tourist resorts. If the women weave on a regular basis, they can earn up to MVR 1,000 ($65) per month — which amounts to approximately 30pc additional income to the average household income in Fiyoaree.

Like many other women in her village, and many parts of the world, Leena is the primary caregiver for the family, while her husband goes out to work. Most of the time, these women also take on the responsibility of collecting water and firewood, as well as growing and harvesting crops.

Even though the past decades have seen huge changes for women in many communities in terms of employment, there are still many women who simply cannot have a job away from their villages because of their duties at home.This is why home or village-based income-generating opportunities, such as Leena’s weaving, are so important.

Women’s role in conservation is often overlooked.

Leena is a beneficiary of Mangroves for the Future, a regional coastal conservation initiative, co-chaired by IUCN and UNDP, that aims to empower women economically by training them in the traditional Maldivian art of thun’du kunaa weaving. This income-generating activity also helps women better understand the value of wetlands — and the fundamentally important services they provide, such as the supply of reed for their weaving.

With their traditional knowledge of sustainability at the household and community level, women can play a critical role in the conservation of natural resources. Coupled with the fact that they are instrumental in running the household, they also hold the key to positively influencing and shaping their husbands’ and children’s views about the importance of safeguarding nature. They, in turn, positively influence their peers, creating ripples of change that spread across the community.

Empowered with more knowledge on the sustainable use of natural resources, these women can become strong advocates for nature-based approaches to sustainable development. Numerous studies indicate that women also play a crucial part in building resilience: from ensuring that fragile ecosystems are protected, to helping their families become more resilient to natural disasters.

Additionally, the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has made it crystal clear that a commitment to gender equality is necessary to secure a better future for all. This is explicitly evidenced in SDG 5 — “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”.

In many nations, gender-based discrimination and inequality are still deeply woven into the social fabric. And despite the fact that women play such a critical role in the conservation of ecosystems, their contribution is often overlooked, undervalued and, sadly, undermined. The recent World Eco­no­mic Forum predicts that the gender gap won’t close entirely until 2186.

Though Asia’s unprecedented economic growth has brought many benefits to its communities through higher incomes and better quality of life, it has also exacerbated threats to the region’s ecosystems through natural habitat degradation and biodiversity loss due to commercial, agricultural and industrial activity.

All is not lost, though. Thankfully, the vital role of gender equality, equity and inclusion in conservation and environmental protection has been receiving increasing attention from both the scientific and political communities. Many international organisations have been relentlessly advocating for the empowerment of women, and for them to take real ownership of the ecosystems on which they rely. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Be bold for change”.

In the Maldives, women like Leena lead the way. By fruitfully engaging in a sustainable income-generating activity, Leena encourages other women to take the leap and do the same.

As increasing numbers of women are empowered through conservation projects that systemically mainstream gender equality into programmatic outcomes, collective efforts in sustainable development become more impactful, and can indeed secure a better future for all.

The writer is regional director, IUCN Asia.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2017