Gender and social capital: The importance of gender differences for the maturity and effectiveness of natural resource management groups

This paper seeks to contribute to an improved understanding of the gender aspects of social capital manifested in groups for natural resource management (NRM). We investigated how gender differentiated social groups differ in their activities and outcomes for NRM. A total of 46 men's, mixed, and women's groups were analyzed in 33 rural programs in 20 countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Significant gender differences were found in relation to group maturity and NRM achievements and approaches as well as important differences in experiences of collaboration and capacity to manage conflict. Overall, we found that collaboration, solidarity, and conflict resolution all increase in groups where women are present. In addition, norms of reciprocity are more likely to operate in women's and mixed groups. Similarly, the capacity for self-sustaining collective action increased with women's presence and was significantly higher in the women's groups. The results demonstrate the importance of gender analysis for collective NRM and particularly the role of women for collaboration in and sustainability of NRM groups. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.