Content Warning: Discusses Gender-Based Violence
by Helen Gloege ’23
Climate change is making the world more dangerous, and will come with several long-term side effects. According to the United Nations (UN), there are likely to be about 250,000 climate-related deaths per year between 2030 and 2050 at the current rate of change.
A new study came out on Jan. 29, called “Gender-Based Violence and Environmental Linkages: The Violence of Inequality.” It aims to establish a knowledge base for understanding and creating action around the link between gender-based violence and the environment. Published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN), the study was put together by Itza Castaneda Camey, Laura Sabater, Cate Owren and A. Emmett Boyer. It pulls knowledge and experience from a wide variety of sources, including those from national governments and international stakeholders.
In environmental contexts, gender-based violence affects the security and well-being of nations, communities and individuals, and jeopardizes the success of sustainable development goals. The new study finds a clear link between gender equality and environmental protection. Gender-based violence is used as a means to control, enforce and protect existing privileges around natural resources and maintain power imbalances. Abuses are used to enable illicit and illegal activities through sexual exploitation and control over communities. There is also a particular vulnerability around indigenous communities. The study focuses on the access to and control over natural resources, threats and pressures on land and resources, gender-based violence in environmental protection, and potential solutions to the larger issue.
One of the more prominent cases is “sex-for-fish,” which is most prominent in East Africa but has also been documented in the Pacific region. This is based on the economic opportunities divided by gender, in which men own boats and go fishing while women sell the fish. The fish stocks are decreasing in part due to climate change, meaning that the men do not catch enough fish to supply all the buyers. Instead, they negotiate sex in exchange for guaranteeing fish to these women. The practice has made women more vulnerable to HIV/AIDs.
In Guatemala, with the indigenous community at 60 percent of the population, there has been a rise in gender-based violence, especially against women who face institutionalized racism and sexism.
In Peru, with a large illegal logging industry, indigenous communities are forced into labor and undocumented people are vulnerable to human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Indigenous women in gold mines in Northern Canada are employed in low-paying positions and made to work in male sleeping quarters without precautions, placing them at greater vulnerability for gender-based violence.
In rural Australia, researchers found an increase in domestic violence during severe droughts, due to an increase in men’s alcohol and drug consumption to help cope with drought and related financial pressures. In Indonesia, many men and boys are trafficked into illegal fishing industries. There are also several cases in which environmental initiatives can unintentionally make gender-based violence worse, which can reverse progress on environmental goals.
Gender inequalities are currently rooted in legal and social norms. This includes unequal access to education, economic opportunities and decision making. With this comes gender-differentiated roles and responsibilities, especially in access to land and resources. Gender-based violence is employed as a way to reinforce power imbalances. Environmental degradation and natural resource scarcity caused by climate change is making these issues more difficult. There is a need to exert control over diminishing resources and in several communities, gender-based violence has been the result.