Contributions of the Forest from the Perception of Community Members of Santiago Tlazala, State of Mexico

Abstract

Nature’s contributions to people are fundamental to life and directly affect the well-being of society as a whole. The objective of this study was to analyze the perceptions of these contributions from a gender perspective through Feminist Political Ecology. We present the valuation of the forest’s benefits to community members, women and men, and owners of an agrarian nucleus in the State of Mexico with exploited timber forest resources. This study is a qualitative exploration carried out through 35 semi-structured interviews, 13 with women and 22 with men, encompassing the meaning of the forest, the perception of the contributions of the forest, the anthropogenic drivers of change, and proposals to ensure the availability of these contributions. We found discrepancies in the perception of the contributions, explained by the differences in the traditional gender roles assignment and the sexual division of labor, which have permeated the distribution, access to benefits of the forest, and its management. We observed that the women community members develop a subtle perception of caring for the forest to preserve their harmonic relationships with nature. We suggest the latter as one of the differences that allow approaching and valuing social perceptions according to gender to redefine new action programs for the benefit of the forest and the well-being of people.