ADAPTATION MANAGEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE: STUDY OF WOMEN ROLE IN FOREST AND LAND CONSERVATION AT THE UPSTREAM OF BENGAWAN SOLO WATERSHED

Abstract

Conservation of forest and land at the upstream areas are important in watershed management. The purpose of this research is to study the role of women in the forest and land conservation in the watershed upstream Bengawan Solo, which included: potential, obstacles, access and participation of women. This study is useful as consideration of increasing the role of women in the forest and land conservation in the watershed management.
This research was conducted in the upstream of Bengawan Solo watershed, that is Protected Forest at Lawu Tawangmangu, Karanganyar and social forest at Jatisrono, Wonogiri, Central Java, which used qualitative methods through the application of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA). The collection of data conducted by observation, interview and Focused Group Discussion (FGD). Sampling was done by purposive sampling based on criteria related to conservation of forests and land. SWOT analysis method is applied to study the potential, weaknesses, threats, and the constraints of the role of women, while the gender analysis aimed to study the access and participation of women in the conservation of forests and land.
The results showed that women have great potential to play a role in the conservation of forests and land in the watershed upstream Bengawan Solo but not yet accommodated as well it shows that women still facing limited access and participation. In fact, women have potentiality as the agent of change as well as in increasing productive of the economy in ecotourism and agroforestry. On the other hand, the women are facing policy implementation that still not accommodated with women interest. It is also found that there are no institutions which accommodate women activities related to conservation. They feel obtain limited benefits economically. Besides that, women participation in planning, implementing, evaluating, and monitoring was still not optimal.