Women’s roles in natural resources and agriculture have been under appreciated or neglected (FAO 2011). Studies often target heads of households, who are usually defined as men, and results are not always disaggregated by gender. Women are often only interviewed when they happen to be the most senior member at home at the time of the interview or there is no male in the household. This sampling method implicitly assumes that men are the default, and that either there are no differences between men and women’s opinions or that they are not important. This assumption is also reflected in project implementation, where women are often relegated to supporting roles such as labor input and skills training (Arya 2007).

The lack of research on the role of women in park-people relationships makes little sense given the central role that women play in the environment as collectors, cultivators, and managers of natural resources (Deda and Rubian 2004; Howard 2003; Rocheleau 1995). A gendered approached can promote more socially just conservation (Ogra 2008) by more equitably distributing benefits and mitigating costs (Martino 2008). It can also result in more effective conservation. Westermann et al.(2005) found that women’s participation in natural resource management groups across 20