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Expedition Diary - Congo Basin

Education for Nature

Judith Mashinya
© WWF

Conserving the Congo: Education for Nature

For almost 15 years, WWF’s Education for Nature (EFN) Program has been equipping conservation leaders with the training and practical experience to take on challenges in their home countries. Follow Judith Mashinya of WWF’s EFN Program as she travels through the Congo Basin to visit conservationists supported by WWF. Along the way, she travels across lagoons teeming with crocodiles and learns how to avoid a buffalo attack.

Gabonese women in conservation at a meeting to discuss opportunities and constrains they face in conservation.
© WWF/Judith Mashinya

Part 10: Women's Voices

Back in Gamba town, I held meetings with representatives of the Smithsonian Institute, the Department of National Parks, and Ibonga, the local NGO I mentioned earlier. I also had very interesting conversations with about 20 women on the issues confronting women in conservation, in particular the near absence of women in the field.

The topic generated a very lively debate. The major issue they mentioned was that senior management, generally male in Gabon, did not provide the women with opportunities to work in the field. Some of the women noted that they had educational qualifications - such as college degrees in geography, GIS, tropical botany and species specializations – that were suited for the field. One said, “I did not study GIS and remote sensing so that I could practice it in the building. I chose this field of study with the full knowledge of what it involves. I want to go into the field where it is possible to be hands-on.” Other women had been told they could not survive the dangers in the forest because they were female or too petite.

In addition to these cultural constraints, women also face financial constraints as they pursue fields of study that would enable them to work in the field or otherwise progress in their careers as conservationists. Consequently, the near absence of women in the field tends to generate a vicious cycle. Without women in the field as role models, few other women would consider careers in this area and leaders, primarily men, would be unlikely to think of women as potential managers. It reinforced in my mind the importance of EFN grants aimed at women conservationists in Central Africa. But it also reminded me that offering training for women is not enough. We must encourage the institutional leadership to be more open to giving women the chance to show that they can be successful field conservationists.