Selection 41 - Women's Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation

In this selection gender and diversity are linked in alot of ways.  Women being the 'second sex' in shared as the same inability to deal with the differences as it is to the displacement and extinction of the environment and things around us. Women like nature are not treated with the same respect and diginity as men most of the time and this is unfair. The marginalization of women and the destruction of diversity give off on one another.  Agricultural 'development' is continuing to work towards erasing diversity, but in the third world country they are trying to keep it going.  In most cultures women are usually the custtodians of the biodiversity, what they do is seen but never eknowledge by the public, it is invisible, or someone else may claim it for themselves.  Women farmers are the essense of farming, and want the seed always be there and to be continuous, never running out of anything, where as the man is all for the monoculture profits. Therefore, we should be aware of what the women do with farming and make sure they get as much benefit as the male farmers.  Genetic engineering is wrong, and can cause many health issues along with environmental issues, the women see that, and men are only in it for the dollar.