In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), approximately 335 million women and girls live in the region, at least 63 million of whom reside in rural areas and maintain a direct and ongoing relationship with nature. Amid multiple and intersecting environmental crises and threats, women and girls, in all their diversity, face profound inequalities rooted in long-standing patterns of social, economic, political, and cultural discrimination. These inequalities manifest in barriers to accessing, controlling, and using natural resources; land tenure and ownership; access to education, technology, and finance; as well as in disproportionate exposure to food insecurity, environmentally induced migration, disasters, and violence.
At the same time, their deep knowledge of territories and community dynamics, often grounded in ancestral practices and sustained through local networks, positions them as critical actors in leading sustainable and transformative responses to environmental crises.
Featured publications
- UN Women and Partners on the Road to COP30: joining efforts for a just and inclusive action
- Scaling Up Climate Change and Environmental Policies and Programmes and Their Effectiveness by Integrating Gender Perspectives
- Feminist climate justice: A framework for action
- The climate–care nexus: Addressing the linkages between climate change and women’s and girls’ unpaid care, domestic, and communal work
- Enhancing Gender-Responsive Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)
- Advancing gender-responsive synergies across the Rio conventions: Gender equality at the intersection of climate action, biodiversity protection and sustainable land management
