Executive Summary: Gender inequality, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation

The research establishes a correlation between gender inequality and lower environmental wellbeing, noting that women's leadership in natural resource management improves governance and environmental outcomes. However, significant gaps persist, including a lack of gender-disaggregated environmental data and the underrepresentation of men and masculinity in conservation literature. The document highlights the critical role of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), noting that while Indigenous-managed territories show better ecosystem health, Indigenous women are often excluded from decision-making. It recommends shifting power and funding from Global North organizations to local, women-led, and Indigenous organizations, and calls for the 2022 UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 to adopt a gender-responsive Global Biodiversity Framework.

• There is a statistically significant correlation between gender inequality and environmental wellbeing across 114 countries, where higher inequality typically corresponds with lower environmental wellbeing. Additionally, in a study of 70 countries, higher proportions of women in parliament and higher educational attainment for women correlated with lower expected carbon emissions per resident, especially in countries with lower socioeconomic development.
• Women's leadership and participation in land and natural resource management result in better environmental outcomes and governance, yet women remain consistently underrepresented in decision-making spaces from the local level to global policy.
• There is a critical shortage of gender-disaggregated environmental data. As of December 2020, only 13% of UN Member States provided data for at least half of the SDG gender indicators, and nearly two-thirds of SDG gender indicators globally lack sufficient information. Furthermore, seven of the 17 SDGs lack official gender equality indicators, and SDG 5 does not include indicators for access to natural resources.
• Conservation literature rarely examines how social norms and masculinity affect environmental outcomes. Patriarchal expectations can lead men toward self-destructive behaviors or gender-based violence when they cannot provide for families during ecological or climatic crises, while pro-environmental behaviors are often associated with social constructions of femininity and caretaking.
• Indigenous-managed territories exhibit higher biodiversity and better ecosystem health, yet Indigenous women are frequently excluded from governance and policy spaces. This exclusion leads to the misrepresentation of the relationship between Indigenous culture and nature and risks the imposition of capitalist economic interventions that may perpetuate colonial structures.
• Ecological research is dominated by the Global North and English-language publications, which excludes knowledge stored in Indigenous languages and oral traditions. This creates a false perception of research gaps and leads to the duplication of work and participation fatigue among Indigenous communities.

APA

Boyer, A. E., Granat, M., Skinner, A., Demerritt, P., Deering, K., Margoluis, C., & Skinner, T. (n.d.). Executive Summary: Gender inequality, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/915/35q3c8k8ee_Env_Degradation_Gender_EnGen_Exec_Summary_formatted_1.pdf

Chicago

Boyer, A. Emmett, Margaux Granat, Althea Skinner, Paul Demerritt, Karl Deering, Cheryl Margoluis, and Taryn Skinner. Executive Summary: Gender inequality, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. WWF International, n.d. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/915/35q3c8k8ee_Env_Degradation_Gender_EnGen_Exec_Summary_formatted_1.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{boyerndexecutive, author = {Boyer, A. Emmett and Granat, Margaux and Skinner, Althea and Demerritt, Paul and Deering, Karl and Margoluis, Cheryl and Skinner, Taryn}, title = {{Executive Summary: Gender inequality, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation}}, institution = {WWF International}, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/915/35q3c8k8ee_Env_Degradation_Gender_EnGen_Exec_Summary_formatted_1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }