POZNAN, Poland, Dec 8 (AlertNet) - U.N. climate change talks should do more to incorporate women's concerns into negotiations on a new global pact, environmental and women's groups said on Monday.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said poor women in developing countries will be affected most by climate change, because of its impact on agriculture, food security and water management - traditionally women's tasks. It also said they are more likely to be killed in disasters caused by extreme weather.
Despite this, most of the debate on climate change at the U.N. talks has been "gender-blind", the IUCN said.
"As women, we look for water and firewood -- we understand the environment better. And as women, we believe that gender issues must be incorporated in all decision making on climate change," said Rejoice Mabudafhasi, South Africa's deputy minister for environmental affairs and tourism.
The Dec. 1-12 talks in Poznan, Poland, are reviewing progress at the half-way stage of a two-year push for a new pact to succeed the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which is meant to be agreed by the end of 2009 in Copenhagen.
GenderCC, an international network of non-governmental organisations, called on governments at talks in Poland to adopt a resolution on gender justice and set up a group that could make formal inputs into the negotiations.
It also proposed that around a third of funds to help countries adapt to the effects of climate change should be set aside for community work that builds women's resilience.
"We need new funding instruments beyond market-based mechanisms, otherwise women and their endeavours to mitigate climate change will not benefit," said Dorah Lebelo of the GreenHouse Project in South Africa.
Lorena Aguilar, IUCN gender advisor, said the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was the only international convention that did not have a mandate to address gender issues and it should develop a "roadmap" to change this.
Women should not be sidelined in climate change policies because they have environmental knowledge that could help protect people, the groups argued.
Mazoe Gondwe, a small farmer from Malawi, said her community was trying to adapt to unpredictable rains by shifting from growing tobacco only to planting mixed crops, including maize and beans, to keep the soil fertile. And they were using irrigation and digging crop ridges closer together to boost production.
"As a local farmer, I know what I need and I know what works. I grew up in the area and I know how the system is changing," Gondwe said.
She needed technology that would reduce the time she had to spend watering crops and hoeing her garden, as well as improve local seed varieties.
"Women are not just helpless victims - they are powerful agents of change, and their leadership is critical," said Aguilar.
Claudia Roa from Fundaexpresion, a Colombian education and environment organisation, said women taking action on climate change had fallen foul of the law in some countries. She noted the case of Chilean women from the indigenous Mapuche community who had been imprisoned over their actions to defend their forests against logging companies.
"We want the world to be aware of the double and triple criminalisation of these women, although they are doing a lot for the climate," she said.
Women attending the Poznan talks told AlertNet they were disappointed in the lack of interest in their proposals so far from the U.N. climate change secretariat and negotiators.
Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, said two countries had called for gender issues to be fully integrated into the UNFCCC's work but he did not know what progress had been made on the proposal.
"We are tired of counting the dead bodies of women on our coasts (after floods and storms)," said IUCN's Aguilar. "Our plea to the people who lead is that they must hear the voices of the women - and men - from our regions who are asking for adaptation solutions."
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