What Is Needed to Build Up Inclusive Environmental Governance?

What Is Needed to Build Up Inclusive Environmental Governance?
Posted by Mari Clark on May 11, 2011 at 3:59pm in Discussion on Links between Gender, Poverty and Environment http://genderinevaluation.ning.com/

Reply by AZIZ FIKRY MOHAMMAD on May 19, 2011 at 12:16am
In Malaysia, besides gender, ethnicicity is often associated with environmental related practices. Forest clearing and open burning activities have often been attributed to the minority ethnic groups in the remote rural areas.
In the towns, majority of the Malay food stalls and small businesses are either managed or operated by women, while the Mamak (Indian Muslim) restaurants are dominated by the males. The Malay foodstalls are less organized, prefering to engage relatives and friends as helpers, and sad to say, adherence to cleanliness and waste disposal standards does not seem to be a priority.
Besides ensuring adequate representation of women in the business sector and non-discriminatory enforcement of environment related practices, an effective training programme should be made specifically mandatory for operators of small & medium scale enterprises(SMEs). For the sake of the future generation, appropriate environment conservation skills should also be imparted through mothers(including those who are not economically employed) and teachers (most of whom are women).