by Esther Agbarakwe, Youth, Gender and Sustainable Development Activist, Member of WEDO Delegation at CBD — @estherclimate 

Biodiversity is the fabric that connects us all and women like myself are the medium through which nature connects with humanity. This is our love story.  In every region of the world, women and men have unique relationships with, dependencies upon, and expertise regarding their environments.

Growing up in a little house with large farmland for a backyard and a beautiful spring just a few kilometers from home, my parents showed us how biodiversity supports our livelihood; providing food, fuel and money for our education and upbringing.  I have since become an advocate for sustainable use of our natural resources and sustainable development in general, having seen our spring destroyed and abandoned as urbanization became widespread.

This week, I travelled from Abuja, Nigeria to join an amazing team of women experts on gender and biodiversity via the Women Caucus facilitated by WEDO to lobby and engage in discussions at the ongoing UN Commission of Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting here in Hyderabad, India.  The 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the international framework for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of its benefits. The Preamble of the Convention shows a commitment to gender equality by, “Recognizing also: the vital role that women play in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and affirming the need for the full participation of women at all levels of policy-making and implementation for biological diversity conservation.”

Yesterday, I participated in a side event by IUCN’s Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) on “Communicating Biodiversity: Telling a Love story”. The event provided practical guidance and examples of positive communication about nature and nature-based solutions among the conservation community. It helped me personalize and humanize my connection to nature and how this approach can support implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and recognition of women indigenous knowledge on biodiversity conservation and how they share that knowledge with their daughters and sons. It reminded me of my mother, who taught me how to farm and produce crops for cash and food, to tend to the small livestock, and keep my surrounding clean and beautiful. In my community, women like my mother are farmers and are largely responsible for the selection, improvement of plant varieties as well as the management of small livestock, including their reproduction.

Being here is such a great privilege as I can also share the stories of women’s livelihoods and biodiversity loss across the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where historical oil pollution has destroyed the only source of livelihood to most rural fisher-woman, and policy interventions do not consider their indigenous and institutional knowledge on biodiversity conservation. Rural women’s roles as food providers and food producers link them directly to the conservation and sustainable utilization of natural resources for food and agriculture and they should be seen as stakeholders in the discussion on biodiversity at all levels.  Even with widespread cultural barriers to women’s participation in decision-making arenas at all levels, I am still in love with nature.