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Women are key players in biodiversity conservation in mountainous regions

31 March 2025 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Andre Damons

Alia Datoo-Eliakeney Njau — Alia Datoo from the Mountain Women of the World Network, and Eliakeney Njau, founder and senior mountain guide of Kilimanjaro Wanderwomen Tours, at the Southern African Mountain Conference.

Mountain women play a pivotal role in environmental protection and socio-economic development in mountainous regions and are integral to the sustainability of fragile mountain ecosystems. However, research shows that these women face multiple and diverse challenges, including gender-based discrimination and restricted access to entrepreneurial and educational opportunities.

This research, which provides critical insights into the lives of mountain women, their challenges, and opportunities for empowerment, was presented by Alia Datoo, Founder of Women who Hike-Africa (Kenya) Ltd and part of the Mountain Women of the World Network, at the Second Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2025) taking place at the Champagne Sports Resort in the Drakensberg.

The SAMC events are conceptualised by the Afromontane Research Unit of the University of the Free State (UFS), the African Mountain Research Foundation, and Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS) – a joint initiative between Eurac Research and the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security. SAMC2025 is held under the patronage of UNESCO.

Mountain Women of the World is a collaborative network founded in 2020 by non-profit organisation Empowering Women of Nepal, non-profit organisation Feminist Hiking Collective, groups Kilimanjaro Women and las Cholitas Escaladoras de Bolivia, and the enterprises Mujeres a la Cumbre, Women Who Hike-Africa and Topchu Art Group from Kyrgyzstan.

This initiative aims to promote a transnational network of mountain women, to build mountain women's collective feminist leadership, strengthen economic justice, narrate a collective mountaineering story and foreground the collective knowledge and experience of mountain women in protecting mountains.

Datoo said their research underscores the stories and voices of mountain women, highlighting the multiple and diverse challenges they face, particularly in rural areas and within the mountain tourism sector. Despite the differences in geography and culture, many of the challenges mountain women face are strikingly similar, she said.

Greater recognition, resources, and representation for mountain women

“We did extensive in-person interviews with 313 women across eight mountain nations, including Argentina, Chile, Italy, Kenia, Kyrgyzstan, Bolivia, Nepal, and Tanzania. This research is crucial because it sheds light on the often-overlooked role of mountain women –not just as custodians of their communities but as key contributors to biodiversity, conservation, local economies, and cultural heritage.

“Yet their voices are rarely included in policy-making and development initiatives. By highlighting their stories, struggles, and contributions, this research advocates for greater recognition, resources, and representation for mountain women globally,” said Datoo.

Through this research, they presented a road map for the empowerment of mountain women, emphasising the need for inclusive policies, enhanced training and educational opportunities, and support for entrepreneurial ventures. By dismantling barriers to equality and amplifying the voices of these women, a more sustainable and inclusive future for mountainous regions can be fostered.

Though there is not a single definitive number of how many women live and work in mountainous areas, as these populations are spread across different continents, each with unique demographics, global estimates suggest that nearly 1 billion people live in mountain regions, with women comprising a significant percentage of this population. Many of these women engage in agriculture, conservation, tourism, and trade, often in conditions of economic hardship, climate vulnerability, and limited access to resources.

What the research found

“Our research revealed that mountain women are not just survivors of hardship – they are architects of resilience, community leaders, and powerful changemakers. Yet, they continue to face systemic barriers that limit their full potential.”

These women, Datoo continued, shoulder immense responsibilities – as caregivers, food providers, economic contributors, and protectors of cultural heritage – but often without recognition, resources, or decision-making power. Economic exclusion is a significant challenge as many mountain women engage in small-scale farming, trade, and artisanal crafts, yet they lack access to fair markets, financial support, or training opportunities to scale their work.

“Despite limited access to formal education or leadership roles, mountain women have built strong, self-sustaining networks – through women’s groups, cooperative savings, mentorship, and knowledge-sharing. Traditional gender roles and societal norms remain deeply entrenched. These women are not waiting for permission. Whether through grassroots organising, entrepreneurship, or informal leadership, mountain women are already driving change within their communities – often with little external support,” said Datoo.

“ We must take action to ensure that women in mountain communities have the resources, opportunities, and recognition they deserve for building a more inclusive and resilient future.

A world without mountain women

According to Datoo, the disappearance or displacement of mountain women would be nothing short of catastrophic – not just for their communities, but for the world. It would mean the loss of an entire ecosystem of knowledge, labour, culture, and resilience that sustains both people and nature.

Mountain women are the keepers of ancestral wisdom in sustainable farming, herbal medicine, textile-making, and survival skills. Without them, irreplaceable traditional knowledge would vanish. Without these women, entire communities would face financial ruin as they economic drivers – from handicrafts and farming to ecotourism and trade.

Simply put – mountain women are not just participants in their communities; they are the backbone. Their presence is not just beneficial – it is essential to the survival, sustainability, and future of mountain societies.

Challenges

According to Datoo, one key challenge was that many women, particularly from indigenous and rural communities, were accustomed to receiving immediate benefits in exchange for participation. Conducting these interviews required patience, cultural awareness, and a deep sense of respect.

Some of the key challenges included:

• Language Barriers – Many women spoke indigenous dialects, requiring trusted local interpreters to ensure clarity and accuracy.

• Geographical Access – Some communities were in remote, high-altitude areas, making travel and logistics physically demanding.

• Cultural Sensitivities – In certain societies, women are not traditionally encouraged to share their perspectives openly, so we had to create safe, trust-based environments for dialogue.

• Emotional Depth – Listening to their struggles – whether related to climate hardships, gender inequality, or economic marginalisation – was deeply moving and, at times, heartbreaking.

Action needed

These studies have provided critical insights into the lives of mountain women; however, research alone is not enough. With this research, we hope to ensure that mountain women are not overlooked but actively included in economic, environmental, and leadership policies at local, national, and global levels.

“We must take action to ensure that women in mountain communities have the resources, opportunities, and recognition they deserve for building a more inclusive and resilient future. Policies need to be strengthened, and women’s contributions recognised through land rights, financial inclusion, and gender-sensitive programmes.

“Women often serve as primary managers of resources, guardians of biodiversity, and custodians of traditional knowledge. However, entrenched discriminatory social norms continue to restrict their access to strategic resources, leadership roles, and equal opportunities, limiting their potential to act as economic agents and builders of resilience,” said Datoo.

Global challenges such as economic downturns, climate change, and the lingering effects of COVID-19 have further deepened their vulnerability. Without action, more women will be pushed out of mountain economies, further marginalising their essential contributions.

News Archive

Open letter from Prof Jonathan Jansen to all UFS students

2014-02-22

Dear Students of the University of the Free State

In the past four years there has emerged a new consensus on the three campuses of the University of the Free State (UFS) about the things that divide us – such as racism, sexism and homophobia. Students and campus leaders have worked hard to develop this new consensus in residences and in the open spaces on campus. There can be no doubt that new bonds of friendship have developed across the markers of race, ethnicity, class, religion and sexual orientation. I bear witness to these new solidarities every day on the campus.

You chose a white student to head up the transformation portfolio on the SRC. You chose a black captain to head up the university’s first team in rugby. You chose a white “prime” as head of residence to lead a predominantly black men’s residence. You chose a South African woman of Indian descent as Rag Queen and last week, a black student from Cape Town as the men’s Rag winner—choices not possible and never made before in our campus history. Many of you have intimate friends who come from different social or cultural or religious backgrounds. You learn together, share rooms together, pray together and party together. In other words, in the day to day workings of this university campus, you have demonstrated to campus, city and country that we can overcome the lingering effects of racism and other maladies in this new generation. You have helped create a university community inclusive of people of diverse religions, abilities, class and sexual orientation.

I have said this repeatedly that from time to time this new consensus will be tested – when a minority of students, and they are a small and dwindling minority, still act as if these are the days of apartheid. And when that consensus is tested as it was this week, and as it will be tested in the future, only then we will be able to assess the strength and durability of our progress in creating a new South African campus culture of human togetherness based on respect, dignity and embrace.

The real test of our leadership, including student leadership, is how we respond when our transformation drive is threatened.

Let me say this: I have absolute faith in you, as students of this great university, to stand together in your condemnation of these vile acts of violence and to move together in your determination to maintain the momentum for the Human Project of the University of the Free State. We have come too far to allow a few criminals to derail what you have built together in recent years.

There will, no doubt, be unscrupulous people on all sides of the political spectrum wanting to milk this tragedy for their own narrow purposes. There will be false information, rumours and exaggerations by those who wish to inflame a bad situation to gain mileage for their agendas. That is inevitable in a country that is still so divided.

I ask you, through all of this, to keep perspective. Two or ten or even twenty students behaving badly do not represent 30,000 students; a minority of violent and hateful persons do not represent the ideals, ambitions and commitments of the majority. At the same time, let us be realistic – anyone who thinks you can drive transformation without resistance clearly does not understand the difficult process of change.

The events of the week remind us, however, that we still have a long road to walk in deepening social and academic transformation at our university. Yes, we have invested hundreds of hours in training and mentorship; we have created new structures – such as the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice – to capture the energy and imagination of students driving transformation; we have created many opportunities for students to study and travel on this and other continents to enable cross-cultural learning; we have established formal and informal opportunities to dialogue about difficult issues on and off campus between students and their leaders; and we crafted new curricula to enable teaching and learning on the big questions of our times.

But this is clearly not enough, and so I have decided on the following immediate next steps:

We will meet for several hours next week to think about how we can deepen the transformation of our university after this terrible incident.
We will arrange a University Assembly on the events of the past week so that we speak with one voice on human wrongs and to re-commit to human rights and we will continue with open forum discussions during the months to come.
We will review the entire spectrum of programmes, from orientation to residence life to the undergraduate curriculum, to determine how effective our interventions really are in reaching all students with respect to basic issues of human rights.
We will review our media and communications strategy to determine how far and deep our messages on human rights travel across all sectors of the university community. In this regard it is important that the campus be blanketed on a regular basis with our condemnation of human wrongs and our commitment to human rights.
We will commission the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice to review the events of the past week and make recommendations on how we can improve the campus environment so that all students are protected from harm inside residences, classrooms and in open spaces of the campus.
We will take the questions raised during this week into the academic community and to the general staff of the university so that all personnel also engage with our own roles and responsibilities with respect to campus transformations.
We undertake to make annual report-backs on transformation to all stakeholders in public forums so that students and staff and external communities can track the progress of the university on matters of human rights on campus.

I wish to thank my staff for acting firmly as soon as this tragic event came to our attention. We worked through the night to find and identify the perpetrators. We traced the two students and immediately handed them to the police. They were expelled. And throughout this process we offered counselling and support to the victim of this violent act.

The two former students were expelled and will now face justice in the criminal courts. It is hoped that in the course of time they will come to their senses and seek restoration and reconciliation with the student they so callously harmed. They are not part of the university community anymore.

That is the kind of university we are.

Jonathan D Jansen
Vice-Chancellor and Rector
University of the Free State
20 February 2014

Note: The use of the word ‘campus’ refers to all three campuses of the UFS, namely the Bloemfontein Campus, South Campus and Qwaqwa Campus.

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