6 Forest Women , Health and Childbearing

In recent years, there has been a certain reluctance in some development and conservation circles to acknowledge the significance of population issues. Westerners are cognizant of their own roles in consuming the world’s resources and understandably consider it inappropriate to warn others about population expansion. Additionally, there is growing recognition that, for instance, in forest management, public participation is often used for the purposes of the managers, donors and project leaders, rather than for local people’s purposes (for a thorough examination of these processes as they apply to women’s reproductive rights, see Braidotti et al, 1994; Reardon, 1995; Rocheleau and Slocum, 1995; Turshen, 1995). And finally, forest managers – usually men, and usually outsiders – typically feel uncomfortable dealing with the women who live in forests. Childbearing behaviour, they believe, is too personal, and outside the realm of forestry or ecological expertise. For all these reasons, many people are fearful of addressing broader population issues in remote forested areas and may even consider it unethical. In this chapter, we begin by making the case, using arguments from Smail (2002a; 2002b), that the population situation is critical. Although population densities in forests are relatively low, the importance of keeping them low – for maintaining forest-based ways of life and biodiversity, as well as for aesthetic and moral reasons – is obvious to forest managers. We next argue that, in fact, lower fertility among women who live in forests will effectively address many of these women’s own concerns and enhance their own wellbeing (both ‘real’ and perceived), and we endeavour to show some of the links among population, health issues and women who live in forests. These links pertain to women outside forests as well. We hope that such clarification will stimulate others to look for creative ways to work more effectively with local forest women to stabilize population and improve local health in ways that will help both the people and the environment.