The dynamics that lead to environmental degradation also exacerbate gender inequities. Food insecurity, extreme weather events, and water scarcity – all of which are made worse by climate change – increase the risk that women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals will be put in situations where their physical, mental, and emotional health is compromised. This includes a heightened risk of gender-based violence (GBV).
In 2020, USAID commissioned new research through our partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Gender-based violence and environment linkages: the violence of inequality. This increased our understanding of GBV and its connection to climate-related sectors. The links between GBV and environmental degradation are very real, and while our initial efforts to address their nexus have been promising, much more must be done.
Sustainable and equitable economies are possible. Ensuring that all are safe and free from violence is fundamental to attaining this vision.
This is what we have learned about the problem. Sexual violence is used as a tool to exert control over land and natural resources. For example, ‘sex-for-fish’ exploitation is unfortunately common in many fishing communities. Women are sexually exploited by fishermen to obtain the right to purchase the goods their livelihoods and families depend upon. Elevated HIV/AIDS transmission rates in fishing communities – at rates four to 14 times higher than national averages – suggest a high prevalence of this practice. One study found 34% of men in 303 households self-reported that they exchanged such assets for sex, but women rarely self-report in these situations due to stigma and fear of reprisals. The practice is so common that it often has its own name in local languages.
In other cases, women are exposed to increased risks of sexual assault as the distances they travel to collect fuel, water, or goods from the forest become greater. Such is the case in four government areas of Borno State in Nigeria, where 85% of surveyed women expressed fear of rape, murder, and abduction while collecting firewood. Other evidence has highlighted how the rise in climate disasters such as droughts and flooding leads to a rise in child, early, and forced marriage that utilises dowries or bride wealth as a negative coping strategy to climate-induced poverty, a violation of sexual and reproductive health rights. In Honduras, a recent report found that deaths, attacks, and the criminalization of female environmental defenders have tripled in the last six years. In the Philippines, 12% of villages affected by the onslaught of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 reported an increase in sexual violence.
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