Is there any gender difference in environmental concern? Evidence from the smallholder farmers in Oromia regional state of Ethiopia

Understanding and closing the gender gap in environmental concern is the only way to identify and implement the best policies for the environment and sustainable development. This paper examines the gender difference in environmental concern in the case of Ethiopia, Oromia regional state. For this, 140 individuals are sampled from the study areas. The result reveals that women play triple role in their communities: reproductive role, productive role, and community roles. The result also shows that women are more likely to depend on natural resources and hence more likely vulnerable to climate change effects. However, there is no statistically significant difference between women and men in terms of climate change awareness and choice of climate change adaptation strategies. The estimated logit model predicts that women are 31.25 times more likely to participate in environmental conservation than men. Increase in the daily work load by 1 hour is more likely to reduce the individual participation in environmental conservation by 0.237 times. The result also shows that increase in livestock possession decreases individual participation in environmental conservations. A number of policy implications are drawn. There is a need to increase the incentive and distribution of improved cooking stoves and biogas so as to decrease the women work loads. There is also a need to engage civil society organizations, government institutions, and relevant women's networks to ensure inclusive approaches to the implementation of gender-responsive forest policies. Finally, the regional government is advised to organize gender-awareness seminars and workshops for forestry officials, including decision-makers and policy committee members.