WITHIN GENDER DIFFERENCES IN TREE MANAGEMENT - IS GENDER DISTINCTION A RELIABLE CONCEPT

Gender is often a useful distinction for analysis and project design, but in some cases it is too narrowly applied to capture some of the fu ndamental differences among female producers. Evaluating agroforestry practices in the Siaya and South Nyanza districts of Kenya, the author s argue that, in designing agroforestry interventions and assessing po licy or program impacts, there is a need to go beyond simple gender di stinctions and look at additional stratifiers such as the individual p roducer's access to resources, including use rights and control over t he benefits from and use of a particular resource. Furthermore, the st udy reveals some of the difficulties in separating activities and effe cts by gender in households where agroforestry decisions are often joi nt. The results of their study show that species choice, tree product marketing and use, and the employment or soil conservation and fertili ty management practices are not clearly differentiated by gender, but rather, more variable across the marital status of women.