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Restore Her Rights Webinar 7: Integrating Gender Equality in Ecosystem Restoration – The Final Episode

The final webinar in the Restore Her Rights Initiative Webinar Series reflected on the insights from the previous webinars, highlighting key lessons, challenges, and successes in gender-responsive restoration.
December 8, 2025December 11th, 2025

WHAT

This is the final webinar in the Restore Her Rights Initiative Webinar Series.  This session will reflect on insights from the previous webinars, highlighting key lessons, challenges, and successes in gender-responsive restoration. It will outline actionable steps, strengthen collaboration, and discuss strategies to advance inclusive policies and practices for equitable and effective ecosystem restoration globally.

WHEN

Friday, 28 November 2025, from 12.00 pm to 1.30 pm UTC. Please check your timezone here.

WHERE

Online event. Register for the event.

WHO

WHY

  • For a  concise summary of the most impactful gender-responsive strategies, policy lessons, and community-led successes highlighted across all six webinars.
  • To identify critical next steps and actionable recommendations for policymakers, NGOs, and communities to ensure long-term commitment to gender equity.
  • To discuss pathways for strengthening collaboration and building a powerful community of practice via the Restore Her Rights Initiative to drive large-scale, equitable ecosystem restoration worldwide.

This webinar is the final part of a larger series, “Restore Her Rights Initiative Webinar Series,” which ran from April to November 2025. The series focused on advancing gender equality and women’s roles in ecosystem restoration, addressing barriers, and promoting gender-responsive policies.

Espanol

QUÉ

Este es el último seminario web de la serie de seminarios web de la iniciativa Restore Her Rights. En esta sesión se reflexionará sobre las ideas expuestas en los seminarios web anteriores, destacando las lecciones clave, los retos y los éxitos en la restauración con perspectiva de género. Se esbozarán medidas viables, se reforzará la colaboración y se debatirán estrategias para promover políticas y prácticas inclusivas para una restauración equitativa y eficaz de los ecosistemas a nivel mundia

CUÁNDO

Viernes, 28 de noviembre de 2025, de 12:00 a 13:30 UTC. Por favor, compruebe su zona horaria aquí.

DÓNDE

Evento en línea.

QUIÉN

POR QUÉ

  • Para obtener un resumen conciso de las estrategias más impactantes que responden a las cuestiones de género, las lecciones sobre políticas y los éxitos liderados por la comunidad que se han destacado en los seis seminarios web.
  • Para identificar los próximos pasos críticos y las recomendaciones viables para los responsables políticos, las ONG y las comunidades a fin de garantizar un compromiso a largo plazo con la equidad de género.
  • Debatir vías para fortalecer la colaboración y crear una poderosa comunidad de prácticas a través de la iniciativa Restore Her Rights, con el fin de impulsar la restauración equitativa de ecosistemas a gran escala en todo el mundo.

Este seminario web es la parte final de una serie más amplia, la «Restore Her Rights Initiative Webinar Series», que se desarrolló entre abril y noviembre de 2025. La serie se centró en promover la igualdad de género y el papel de las mujeres en la restauración de ecosistemas, abordar las barreras y promover políticas sensibles al género.

Francais

QUOI

Il s’agit du dernier webinaire de la série de webinaires de l’initiative Restore Her Rights. Cette session permettra de revenir sur les enseignements tirés des webinaires précédents, en mettant l’accent sur les principales leçons, les défis et les réussites en matière de restauration sensible au genre. Elle présentera des mesures concrètes, renforcera la collaboration et discutera des stratégies visant à promouvoir des politiques et des pratiques inclusives pour une restauration équitable et efficace des écosystèmes à l’échelle mondiale.

QUAND

Vendredi, 28 novembre 2025, de 12 h à 13 h 30 UTC. Veuillez vérifier votre fuseau horaire ici.

Où

Événement en ligne.

QUI

POURQUOI

  • Pour obtenir un résumé concis des stratégies sensibles au genre les plus efficaces, des enseignements tirés des politiques et des réussites menées par les communautés mises en avant au cours des six webinaires.
  • Pour identifier les prochaines étapes essentielles et les recommandations concrètes à l’intention des décideurs politiques, des ONG et des communautés afin de garantir un engagement à long terme en faveur de l’égalité des sexes.
  • Discuter des moyens de renforcer la collaboration et de créer une communauté de pratique puissante via l’initiative Restore Her Rights afin de favoriser une restauration équitable et à grande échelle des écosystèmes dans le monde entier.

Ce webinaire est le dernier volet d’une série plus large, la  « Restore Her Rights Initiative Webinar Series », qui s’est déroulée d’avril à novembre 2025. La série s’est concentrée sur la promotion de l’égalité des sexes et du rôle des femmes dans la restauration des écosystèmes, la suppression des obstacles et la promotion de politiques sensibles au genre.

Event Summary

The Restore Her Rights (RHR) Initiative Webinar series has effectively linked gender justice and environmental restoration, demonstrating that biodiversity and ecological restoration cannot be separated from social justice, equity, and community rights. By centring women, predominantly Indigenous and marginalised women, the discussions in the series have challenged traditional conservation paradigms that often marginalise local communities or treat them as “beneficiaries,” rather than rights-holders, knowledge-bearers, and leaders.

Through this webinar series, the RHR Initiative has tried to align global environmental governance under conventions such as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), which also houses the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to adopt gender-responsive, inclusive, and equitable policies which have substantial implications for funding, land rights, governance, and the design of restoration projects.

For practitioners, policymakers, civil society, or anyone working on environment and social justice, this series has provided concrete examples, models, and entry points to advocate for or design gender inclusive restoration and sustainability projects.

This was the seventh and final webinar in the RHR Initiative Webinar series. It began with an introduction to the Initiative, which focuses on empowering women, especially women from Indigenous and marginalised communities. The initiative aims to empower women by amplifying their voices and advocating for policies and programs that support their needs. RHR Initiative’s objectives include promoting rights, restoring access to land and resources, celebrating women’s work, and fostering solidarity. This webinar followed a talk-show format where the speaker panel included Gloria Adeyiga from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (CSIR-FORIG) in Ghana; Mrinalini Rai, the Founder and Director of Women4Biodiversity, and it was moderated by Rubina Pradhan, the Restore Her Rights Initiative Coordinator at Women4Biodiversity.

Gender Equality in Restoration Initiatives

The webinar began with a video recording from Samantha Davalos Segura, the Ecosystem Restoration Specialist at UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. She shared insights on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’s efforts to promote gender equality and address gender gaps in restoration initiatives. She emphasised the growing recognition of women’s leadership in restoration and the need for better monitoring systems to measure progress specifically better data and monitoring systems. Her video also touched on global commitments to integrate gender equality into restoration plans and the importance of amplifying the voices of women and youth-led organisations.

Gender Inequalities in Restoration Efforts

Gloria Adeyiga then shared her work on enhancing food security and reducing climate vulnerability among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana. Gloria’s session brought together evidence-backed research on how restoration efforts continue to be unequal and how the lived realities of women in ground-level restoration efforts remain far removed from global commitments. She further discussed the gender inequalities in restoration interventions, highlighting how women are often excluded from decision-making processes despite their significant role in maintaining household livelihoods. She emphasised the need for evidence-based approaches to address these inequalities. She called for policy-level action to integrate gender considerations into restoration projects, and emphasised that the only way to do this is through the government.

Gloria further argued that restoration efforts carried out by women in their communities cannot be considered “voluntary work”. This highlights a larger issue at hand: how women typically shoulder unpaid care burdens and are expected to continue doing so, both at home and outside their domestic sphere. This emphasises gendered roles and power dynamics that continue to marginalise women, especially since women provide significant, though often unrecognised, economic value to restoration work through their roles as stewards of natural resources, key labour providers, and drivers of sustainable economic growth. Thus, their inclusion is critical for the success and sustainability of ecological and economic recovery efforts. Gloria argued that women carrying out restoration work must question the monetary value of their time as well as their efforts.

Mrinalini also supported Gloria’s argument and reiterated that women’s lives are intrinsically linked to restoration activities and should not be considered “voluntary”; in fact, they should have economic value. She further highlighted the global restoration commitments, but also detailed the obstacles women encounter regarding land rights and access to financial aid. She emphasised that sustained funding, technical assistance, and legal changes are crucial for guaranteeing women’s active involvement in restoration initiatives.

Gender Integration in Ecosystem Restoration

The discussion focused on the challenges and opportunities in integrating gender perspectives into ecosystem restoration projects. Gloria highlighted the disconnect between customary laws and international laws. She emphasised the importance of understanding local contexts before implementing restoration programs. She also discussed the unintended consequences of gender-focused projects, such as women gaining access to land for restoration but potentially being displaced later. Gloria suggested that intentionally measuring gender dimensions and engaging with traditional authorities and landowners can help address these issues. The conversation also touched on the need to bridge the gap between conventional practices and government policies to ensure women’s secure access to resources for livelihoods.

The panel then discussed the importance of context-specific approaches to gender equality in restoration projects, emphasising the need to measure outcomes and build bridges between different governance levels intentionally. They highlighted the importance of engaging local communities and governance bodies, as well as exploring levers to gain support from governments for gender equality in restoration efforts. The discussion also touched on the need to understand governments’ perspectives and requirements to advocate for women’s rights in restoration and conservation effectively.

Gloria shared her experience of using role plays to present evidence of inequality in local communities. Mrinalini further emphasised the importance of community exchanges and building solidarity between women, suggesting that similar exchanges for men could also be beneficial.

The final episode of the RHR Initiative webinar series aimed to tie up the entire series and reestablish the fact that gender equality in ecosystem restoration can only be achieved when worked on in collaboration rather than in silos. This is particularly important if we want to achieve and implement Target 2: Restore 30% of all Degraded Ecosystems of the KM-GBF. For this to be a reality, policymakers, academics, practitioners, civil society organisations, and communities must work in collaboration and support one another. For this generation to be truly #generationrestoration, the focus must be on strengthening meaningful engagement of women and girls, especially, those belonging to IPs and LCs.

Furthermore, the critical role of women in natural resource management and conservation, including their traditional and ecological knowledge, as well as their participation in ecosystem restoration initiatives, must be recognised and respected in decision-making processes. Discussions throughout this webinar series have highlighted that the underrepresentation of women within these dimensions is a real issue and can be attributed to various factors, including sociocultural norms, limited access to resources, and restricted decision-making power in environmental governance.

A gender-responsive approach is crucial for ecosystem restoration, as highlighted throughout this webinar series. This approach acknowledges and respects the specific roles, needs, and knowledge that both women and men contribute to environmental management.

Consequently, the meaningful participation of women, particularly those from indigenous and local communities, is essential. Their involvement integrates diverse viewpoints and traditional ecological knowledge, significantly boosting the resilience and sustainability of ecosystem restoration initiatives.