All images credit and copyright: Women4Biodiversity
From 9 June to 11 June 2025, a dynamic group of grassroots environmental advocates, youth leaders, and gender experts gathered in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a three-day training hosted by Women4Biodiversity (W4B), which was supported by Swedbio at Stockholm Resilience Centre. The workshop focused on integrating Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) into ecosystem restoration planning, recognising that addressing biodiversity loss and equity must go hand in hand. The event created space for reflection, exchange, and bold conversation around power, identity, and environmental justice.
The training brought together 33 participants from South Asian and Southeast Asian countries and organisations, representing Indigenous Peoples, women-led groups, youth, and environmental NGOs. Facilitated by the GESI expert, Dibya Devi Gurung, and co-led by Women4Biodiversity’s Founder and Director, Mrinalini Rai, the workshop was carefully designed using adult learning principles. Mrinaini Rai, also shared the global policy frameworks and decisions relevant to the work on restoration within the scope of the three Rio Conventions, and other related multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Samantha Dávalos Segura, Ecosystem Restoration Specialist at UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration joined virtually from Nairobi, to further talk about the principles for ecosystem restoration to guide the UN Decade from 2021 to 2030. The 10 clear principles ensure restoration is effective, inclusive, and sustainable, including recognising the role and contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as women.
The workshop approach centred lived experiences, encouraged vulnerability, and prioritised participatory learning over passive lectures.
Setting the Stage: From Identity to Intersectionality
The training opened with warm welcomes and a clear intention: to create a safe and inclusive space where participants could unpack biases, explore the complexities of identity, and reflect on their roles as change-makers. From the outset, the group co-developed agreements on confidentiality, respect, and reflection, laying the foundation for honest and open dialogue.
Initial sessions helped participants explore personal identity, intersectionality, and power structures. Through exercises like “Who Am I?” and “My Personal History,” participants reflected on their lived experiences with discrimination and resilience. Discussions revealed how patriarchy, class, caste, ethnicity, sexuality, and ability intersect to shape both opportunity and exclusion. Many shared moments of struggle, from being silenced in decision-making spaces to facing societal judgment for breaking gender norms, were included.
By acknowledging pain as a source of strength, participants built solidarity and saw themselves, and each other, as professionals and as full, complex people.
One participant remarked, “We laughed at our pain because it was a shared pain.”
From the Personal to the Political: Why GESI Matters in Restoration
A central theme of the training was linking personal experiences of marginalisation to structural inequalities in environmental governance. Participants explored how gender-blind restoration projects can unintentionally reinforce inequalities or cause harm, for example, when women’s labour is used but their voices are excluded from planning. Real-world examples from Nepal, India, and Thailand illustrated how women’s knowledge and leadership are essential to restoration, but too often go unrecognised.
Global frameworks such as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) emphasise gender responsiveness. However, many Indigenous and local communities remain unaware that their lands have been pledged for restoration. The workshop bridged this gap by connecting technical content with grassroots realities, ensuring that community-driven, rights-based restoration is discussed and centred.
One memorable moment came during a clay modelling activity, where participants physically shaped their visions of restored ecosystems. The creative process reinforced that restoration is not just about planting trees; it’s about regenerating cultural relationships, traditional knowledge, and community well-being.
Moving from Insight to Action
Across the remaining days two and three, the workshop shifted from conceptual clarity to practical application. Participants were introduced to tools and frameworks to integrate GESI into project planning. They explored distinguishing between material conditions (access to land, income, education) and social position (decision-making power, visibility, recognition). These distinctions helped illuminate how empowerment cannot be achieved through access alone, and actual change requires addressing power imbalances.
Using problem tree analysis, participants identified specific GESI-related barriers in their communities, from women’s lack of tenure rights to intergenerational miscommunication and exclusion of non-dominant language speakers. They then developed GESI-responsive outcomes and indicators, using the 4E’s Framework (Engagement, Empowerment, Enhancement, Emergence) to guide transformative planning.
Discussions emphasised that participation is not enough. Real empowerment means ensuring women, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalised groups are not just at the table, but shaping decisions, influencing policies, and being recognised as leaders. Participants refined their action plans to be context-specific and measurable, applying an intersectional lens to ensure that compounded vulnerabilities are not overlooked.
Reflecting Power, Practising Care
The training also invited critical reflection on facilitation practices. Participants discussed how formal methods like focus group discussions can exclude marginalised voices, and how more culturally resonant spaces like baby showers or community kitchens can offer better entry points for dialogue. In one decisive moment, a participant noted that even sitting on the floor and giving each other massages during sessions helped build trust and authenticity, highlighting how space design can support or hinder inclusion.
Another key takeaway was engaging men and community leaders in GESI work. While creating women-only spaces is essential for healing and confidence-building, lasting change also requires transforming patriarchal norms. Open dialogue, allyship, and long-term trust-building were identified as crucial strategies.
A Movement, Not a Moment
The workshop concluded on a high note, with presentations of group action plans, celebration of achievements, and an emotional closing circle. Participants shared how the experience had reshaped their understanding of gender, shifted their perspectives on restoration, and equipped them with tools to apply GESI in their work. One participant reflected, “Now, I see how I can connect my fieldwork with policy-level impact.”
Evaluation results were overwhelmingly positive. Nearly 80% of participants rated the workshop as “amazing,” and all reported a deepened understanding of intersectionality and GESI. The “gift of pain” emerged as a central theme, capturing the workshop’s unique blend of heart and strategy, trauma-informed care, and visionary thinking.
Women4Biodiversity closed the training by sharing its broader Restore Her Rights Initiative and 26 principles for gender-responsive restoration. These resources, along with the connections, reflections, and ideas generated during the workshop, will continue to support the creation of just, inclusive, and resilient ecosystems across the globe.
As one participant noted, “We’re not just restoring land. We’re restoring rights, dignity, and hope!”
