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Previous research and literature commonly agree to the fact that women, especially rural women, is the most vulnerable group in society. Many of them tend to be found in the poorest sections of society. Women depend on natural resources for their livelihoods and are discriminated concerning labour division and access, control and knowledge about natural resources such as forests. Changes in the climate and natural degradation, especially forest degradation are threatening their livelihoods. Gender relations are structured around managing the environment where women are seen as major users and managers of the forests. The aim and the research questions of this study is to examine how women in Senegal experience that their everyday life and livelihood activities within fuelwood collection have been affected by deforestation. Furthermore, what reason do women see behind deforestation and the changes in their local environments. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven women from two villages in southern Senegal in the region of Casamance and Sine-Saloum. All these women were involved in fuelwood collecting activities. The result of the study was analysed through previous research, feminist political ecology approach and through definitions of livelihood and sustainable development in order to explain women’s experiences and activities within fuelwood collection. The result found that all women experiences changes in their livelihoods because of deforestation. The amount of time spent on fuelwood collecting activities increased while it less time was left to other activities. Women’s income and resources from the forests reduced or disappeared and the main focus turned into cover the needs of the household. Women’s personal everyday lives have been negatively affected by deforestation. Heavy work had negative health effects on the women. Some women have left fuelwood collection for alternative sources of income because it has become too demanding. Furthermore, the results showed that women are worried about their future since they are in mutual need of forests as well as fuelwood to survive.

Bangladesh is known as one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, especially the southwest coastal region. This area frequently experiences extreme weather such as cyclones, storms, waterlogging, droughts, and high levels of salinity. These events are projected to intensify further with climate change. Moreover, scholars have emphasized that women in Bangladesh bear the heaviest burden from environmental challenges in terms of vulnerability, exposure, and adaptation. This study aims to illustrate the reality and everyday life of emotions and thoughts of women living under these kinds of circumstances. To do so, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living in three different villages in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. The purpose investigates how environmental challenges affect women living in this region in terms of health, mobility, livelihood, and social- and economic security. In addition, this study explores how these women look at the future as well as how they live their everyday life in an area affected by environmental challenges. The ambition was not to find comparable answers, rather to illustrate a variety of women’s realities and challenges. The gathered material was analyzed through previous research and the theoretical frameworks of IPCC’s Conception of Risk and Feminist Political Ecology (FPE).     The results show that women are affected in several ways by environmental challenges because of socially constructed gender roles that are governed by patriarchal principles in the society of Bangladesh. These principles further state the positioning of women and that they hold reproductive-, domestic-, and productive roles that further enhance their vulnerability, exposure, as well as ability to cope and adapt to environmental challenges. Moreover, geographical location and poverty are also two key factors that play a crucial part in how women experience environmental challenges and ability to cope and adapt to these.

Seaweed has been hit hard by climate change around the world. The island of Zanzibar, which is the world’s third biggest exporter of seaweed, is one of the places where seaweed is affected. 80 percent of the seaweed farmers on Zanzibar are women who are directly affected by climate change since they are making a living from seaweed farming. New efforts to tackle the impact of climate change on seaweed has been made on Zanzibar through the SEA PoWer project which is a new technique of growing seaweed and enables twenty-four female seaweed farmers to grow in deep and cooler waters instead of the more traditional way which is in shallow waters. The aim of this study is to, from a livelihood perspective, examine women’s experiences and perceptions of the old versus the new techniques of farming seaweed on Zanzibar, Tanzania.  The research questions for this study focus on finding out the women’s experiences and perceptions of the changes in the techniques in relation to opportunities for livelihoods through seaweed farming. Furthermore, this study investigates if women experience conflicts of interest with men regarding the use of ocean space. Semi-structured interviews with eleven women who have used the new technique of growing seaweed were conducted and the results was analyzed in the light of previous research, through the definitions of livelihood and gender, and the theoretical concept of feminist political ecology. The result has shown that all women experienced improvements in their livelihoods through the new technique of seaweed farming. One clear improvement was that there were no negative health effects when using the new technique. The study also found that there are no conflicts of interest between men and women regarding the use of ocean space when using the new technique of seaweed farming. The women had a positive view on the future and had high expectations, they had already noticed positive effects on their livelihoods in form of social, human, physical capital and health.

The world is facing a global waste crisis due to half of the waste produced not being collected, treated or safely disposed of. Waste not managed in a proper way causes air and water pollution and has negative health and social impacts on people living or working close to the waste. Alt- hough evidence shows that implementing gender approaches improves environmental issues, and the majority of waste pickers are women, few organisations focused on waste management are implementing gender mainstreaming into their work. This case study examines gender main- streaming within the organisation Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) in relation to environmental issues. WIEGO is an international organisation working to increase the voice, visibility and validity of the working poor, with a special emphasis on women, with a core project that supports cooperative waste picker women in Brazil. The study was conducted through two interviews on local and international level and the analysis of 20 documents describing WIEGO and its work. The theories and concepts of gender mainstreaming, intersectionality, Feminist Political Ecology and Environmental Justice were used to analyse the results. The study showed that WIEGO was implementing gender mainstreaming in their opera- tive work, in the policy framework and in the waste picker projects in Brazil which has resulted in physical and emotional improvements for WIEGO employees internationally and waste pick- ers in Brazil. <<< / Världen står inför en global avfallshanteringskris där hälften av allt avfall som produceras inte insamlas, hanteras eller kasseras på ett säkert sätt. Avfall som inte hanteras säkert skapar luft- och vattenföroreningar och har negativa hälsosamma och sociala effekter för människor som lever eller arbetar nära avfallet. Trots att forskning visar att genusperspektiv förbättrar miljö- problem, och att majoriteten av avfallshanterare är kvinnor, fokuserar få organisationer som hanterar avfall på ”gender mainstreaming” i sitt arbete. Denna fallstudie undersöker ”gender mainstreaming” i organisationen Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) i relation till miljöproblem. WIEGO är en internationell organisation som arbetar med att öka inflytandet, synligheten och validiteten hos fattiga arbetande, med ett särskilt fokus på kvinnor, med ett kärnprogram som stöttar kooperativ av avfallshanterande kvinnor i Brasi- lien. Studien genomfördes med två intervjuer på lokal och internationell nivå och analys av 20 dokument som beskriver WIEGO och dess arbete. Teorierna och koncepten ”gender mainstrea- ming”, intersektionalitet, Feministisk Politisk Ekologi och miljörättvisa användes för att analy- sera resultaten. Studien visar att WIEGO använder sig av ”gender mainstreaming” i sitt opera- tiva arbete, i sitt policyramverk och i avfallshanteringsprojekten i Brasilien, vilket resulterat it fysiska och emotionella förbättringar för WIEGOs internationellt anställda och för de avfalls- hanterande kvinnorna i Brasilien.