Women’s Environmental Activism: Historical Movements, Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation

Women have been at the forefront of environmental protection for centuries – long before the term “environmentalism” even existed. From sacrificing their lives to save sacred trees in the deserts of Rajasthan to embracing trunks in the Himalayan foothills to block loggers, women’s environmental activism has shaped conservation history in profound ways. Their contributions go beyond protest: women, especially indigenous women, hold invaluable traditional knowledge about biodiversity, ecosystems, and sustainable resource management. Yet, their role in environmental decision-making remains disproportionately low. This post traces the historical arc of women’s environmental activism, explores their leadership in conservation, examines their role as custodians of biodiversity, and highlights the challenges they face in gaining a seat at the policy table.

Historical resistance: the roots of women’s environmental activism 🔗

One of the earliest documented instances of environmental resistance took place in 1730 in the village of Khejarli, near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Amrita Devi Bishnoi, a woman from the Bishnoi community, stood against soldiers sent by the Maharaja of Marwar, Abhay Singh, to cut down sacred khejri trees for palace construction. Amrita Devi physically embraced a tree and refused to let go, even at the cost of her life. She was killed, and her three daughters followed her example and met the same fate. Word spread to 83 surrounding Bishnoi villages, and a council resolved that one volunteer would lay down their life for every tree to be felled. By the end of that day, 363 Bishnois had been martyred.

The Maharaja, upon learning of the devastation, halted the felling, apologised to the community, and issued a decree engraved on a copper plate permanently prohibiting the cutting of trees and hunting of animals near Bishnoi villages. That protection endures to this day. The Bishnoi community follows 29 principles laid down by their spiritual leader Guru Jambheshwar in the 15th century, many of which emphasise environmental stewardship. The Indian government later instituted the Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award in her honour, and September 11 was declared National Forest Martyrs Day.

The Chipko movement: women hugging trees in the Himalayas 🔗

Nearly 250 years after the Khejarli sacrifice, women in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand revived the tree-hugging tactic in what became known as the Chipko movement (“chipko” meaning “to embrace” in Hindi). Beginning in 1973 in the village of Mandal in the Chamoli district, the movement arose in response to government-sanctioned commercial logging that was causing severe environmental degradation – landslides, floods, and loss of water sources.

Women were the backbone of this movement. As the primary users of forests – responsible for collecting firewood, fodder, and water – they bore the heaviest burden of deforestation. A landmark moment came in 1974 near the village of Reni, where Gaura Devi led women to confront loggers after the men of the village were deliberately summoned away. The women refused to move, and the loggers were forced to withdraw. Other leaders such as Sudesha Devi and Bachni Devi played pivotal roles in subsequent protests across the region.

The movement’s greatest policy victory came in 1980 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a 15-year ban on commercial green felling in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. The Chipko movement also influenced India’s Forest Conservation Act of 1980, which aimed to regulate deforestation across the country. Its ripple effects were global – inspiring similar movements in Karnataka (the Appiko movement, 1983), and environmental protests in countries including Japan, Switzerland, and Thailand.

Noted environmental thinker Vandana Shiva has described the Chipko women as her professors in ecology and biodiversity, stating that they taught her about the interconnectedness of ecosystems just as profoundly as her formal academic training did.

Women’s leadership in environmental conservation 🔗

Women’s environmental activism is not limited to historical resistance movements. Across the world, organised women’s groups actively fight deforestation, pollution, and environmental degradation at local and regional levels. Their approach often centres on sustainable practices and the regeneration of degraded environments rather than merely opposing harmful activities.

At the global level, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) has been a key force in bringing women’s voices into international sustainability policy. Founded in 1990 by former U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug and feminist activist Mim Kelber, WEDO has worked for over three decades to advance gender-just climate, environmental, and economic policies. The organisation played a crucial role in ensuring gender equality language was included in landmark documents like Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration at the 1992 Earth Summit.

WEDO’s work spans six key areas including climate policy, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable cities. They developed the Gender Climate Tracker – a digital tool that tracks government policies and women’s participation in climate decision-making under the UNFCCC. In 2006, WEDO was recognised as an international Champion of the Earth by UNEP for its advocacy work.

From local action to global agendas 🔗

Women’s environmental groups have also been instrumental in shaping international agendas. Initiatives like the Women’s Action Agenda 21, which emerged from the 1991 Women’s World Congress for a Healthy Planet in Miami, brought together over 1,500 women from 83 countries to develop a consensual platform on environment and development. WEDO subsequently organised women’s caucuses at major UN conferences – from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo to the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women – ensuring that gender perspectives were embedded in sustainable development frameworks.

The 2015 adoption of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflected this cumulative advocacy. Gender equality was established as both a standalone goal (SDG 5) and a cross-cutting priority across all 17 goals, formally recognising that women are disproportionately affected by environmental problems but also hold crucial knowledge and leadership for solving them.

Gender, biodiversity, and traditional knowledge 🔗

Women, particularly indigenous women, serve as custodians of local biodiversity across the globe. Their distinct roles in managing agricultural lands, forests, water resources, and medicinal plants have generated deep and often irreplaceable knowledge about environmental management.

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), traditional knowledge refers to the knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities that are relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. This knowledge is central to indigenous identity, culture, and livelihoods, and its transmission from one generation to the next must be protected and encouraged. The CBD also notes a direct relationship between the loss of indigenous languages and the loss of biodiversity – underscoring the deep connection between nature and culture.

Women as seed keepers and resource managers 🔗

In many communities worldwide, women hold primary responsibility for procuring water, collecting firewood, managing waste, and providing healthcare – often through plant-based medicines. These roles give them extensive, hands-on knowledge of local ecosystems. Women know which plants are medicinal, where water sources are reliable, how to store and care for seeds, and how diverse crops can sustain both nutrition and soil health.

The World Economic Forum has highlighted that indigenous women are among nature’s first responders when biodiversity loss strikes, and that their knowledge forms a critical but underutilised resource for conservation. Indigenous peoples protect an estimated 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity within their territories, and women within these communities play a disproportionately large role in maintaining that balance.

A UN Special Rapporteur report on indigenous peoples’ rights has noted that indigenous women’s understanding of botany and animal species can contribute to climate science and help mitigate the effects of climate change. For instance, in Kenya, Ogiek and Sengwer women practise beekeeping – harvesting honey for food and medicine – as an important element of forest conservation that supports broader biodiversity.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has acknowledged that indigenous women represent untapped potential as stewards of natural resources and biodiversity. Yet this knowledge – built over centuries of careful observation and practice – remains largely undocumented and undervalued in formal policy frameworks.

Challenges to women’s environmental decision-making 🔗

Despite their critical ecological knowledge and frontline activism, women remain significantly underrepresented in environmental decision-making at every level – from local resource management committees to global climate negotiations.

Data from WEDO’s Gender Climate Tracker shows that at COP28, women and non-binary individuals comprised only about 34% of party delegations – the same percentage as a decade earlier. Only 2% of delegations had equal numbers of men and women, while 79% of delegations were male-majority. This persistent gap means that the perspectives of those most directly affected by environmental degradation are routinely excluded from the policies designed to address it.

The paradox of traditional knowledge and power 🔗

Even within indigenous communities, gendered power dynamics create barriers. While women often hold the most detailed knowledge of local plants, medicinal uses, and ecological patterns, control over knowledge with commercial value – such as certain medicinal plants – frequently rests with men. Conservation policies themselves can inadvertently harm women: the establishment of protected areas may restrict women’s traditional access to forests and water sources they depend on for daily survival, and the pricing of ecological products can push resources beyond their reach.

The IUCN has noted that indigenous women are often not explicitly mentioned in global biodiversity frameworks – they disappear within the generalities of both “indigenous peoples” and “women,” making it difficult to develop targeted indicators or measure progress. Reliable data on indigenous women’s roles in biodiversity conservation remains notably inadequate, which in turn limits dedicated funding and evidence-based policymaking.

From WID to GAD: evolving policy frameworks 🔗

The international community’s approach to integrating gender in environmental and development policy has evolved significantly over the past five decades. The Women in Development (WID) approach, which emerged in the 1970s, focused on integrating women into existing development processes – increasing their productivity and economic participation while largely accepting existing social structures.

By the 1980s, it became clear that simply “adding women” to development programmes was insufficient without addressing the structural causes of gender inequality. This led to the Gender and Development (GAD) approach, which shifted focus from women in isolation to examining the socially constructed relationships between men and women. As the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia defines it, GAD rests on three premises: gender relations are fundamentally power relations; gender is a socio-cultural construction; and structural changes in gender roles are possible.

Applied to environmental policy, GAD demands that conservation and sustainability initiatives not simply include women as beneficiaries, but actively transform the gendered power dynamics that limit women’s access to resources, knowledge, and decision-making authority. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit’s declaration explicitly stated that women play a leading role in environmental management and that their full participation is essential for sustainable development. The 1995 Beijing Conference reinforced this, with delegates emphasising women’s role in environmental decision-making at all levels.

Gender analysis in environmental policy is now widely recognised as essential – but implementation lags far behind commitments. Bridging this gap remains one of the most pressing challenges at the intersection of gender and environmental justice.

The road ahead for women’s environmental activism 🔗

Women’s environmental activism – from Amrita Devi’s sacrifice in 1730 to the Chipko movement in the 1970s to the work of organisations like WEDO today – demonstrates a consistent pattern. Women, especially those in rural and indigenous communities, have both the knowledge and the motivation to lead conservation efforts. They understand ecosystems through daily, lived experience. They manage biodiversity not as an abstract concept but as a practical necessity for feeding families, healing the sick, and sustaining livelihoods.

Yet this knowledge remains undervalued, their participation in formal decision-making is limited, and conservation policies are still designed without adequate gender analysis. Addressing this requires more than policy declarations – it demands systemic changes: securing women’s land and resource rights, funding indigenous women’s organisations, integrating traditional ecological knowledge into formal conservation strategies, and ensuring equal representation in climate and environmental negotiations.

The evidence is clear: when women lead, conservation outcomes improve. The question is whether global and national institutions will match their rhetoric with meaningful action.

What do you think? How can environmental policy frameworks better integrate women’s traditional ecological knowledge into conservation strategies? And what lessons from movements like Chipko remain relevant for today’s climate activism?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khejarli_massacre
2. http://www.sahapedia.org/when-amrita-devi-and-362-bishnois-sacrificed-their-lives-khejri-tree
3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chipko-movement
4. https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kj_article/99176/
5. https://wedo.org/
6. https://www.unep.org/championsofearth/laureates/2006/womens-environment-development-organization-wedo
7. https://wedo.org/about-us/
8. https://www.cbd.int/article/role-indigenous-women-transmission-traditional-knowledge-IDWIP2022
9. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/04/women-essential-role-biodiversity-conservation/
10. https://un.arizona.edu/search-database/indigenous-women-and-development-application-preservation-and-transmission
11. https://iucn.org/story/202212/rights-indigenous-women-post-2020-biodiversity-framework
12. https://www.unescwa.org/sd-glossary/gender-and-development-gad