ITTO honours key role of women in forests on International Women’s Day

ITTO is marking International Women’s Day on 8 March by presenting interviews with four prominent advocates of the key role of women in sustainable forest management. The interviewees are former chair of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTO’s governing body), Stephanie Caswell; President of the African Women's Network for Community Management of Forests, Cécile Ndjebet; the Ambassador of Finland to Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, Mika Koskinen; and ITTO Executive Director Gerhard Dieterle.

By adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including Sustainable Development Goal 5 (“achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”), all ITTO members acknowledge the importance of gender equality in achieving sustainable development.

ITTO also recognizes that gender equality and empowering women are essential for the sustainable management of tropical timber producing forests, which is a core ITTO objective.

The International Tropical Timber Council adopted the ITTO Policy Guidelines on Gender Equality and Empowering Women at its 53rd session in December 2017 with the objective of mainstreaming gender considerations into ITTO’s work. Stephanie Caswell, Cécile Ndjebet, Mika Koskinen and Gerhard Dieterle discuss how the guidelines will assist ITTO’s efforts to encourage sustainable forest management.