Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
Proposal abstract:
Women farmers/landowners are an increasing demographic in the North-Central SARE region; in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, nearly half of farmers identified as women. Yet, women remain underrepresented in conservation programming and are less likely to access technical and financial resources available for conservation than their male counterparts. Prior work in this space has focused on building safe, relationship-oriented spaces where women feel accepted and able to explore conservation. Our project seeks to creatively build on this by demonstrating the power of relationships, storytelling, and maps in women-centered conservation programming.
In partnership with five diverse, women farmers/landowners in Wisconsin, we will co-host five workshops for small communities of women farmers/landowners and conservation practitioners that demonstrate how using storytelling and maps can increase awareness and accessibility of conservation practices and the technical and financial resources available. Using what we learn from the workshops and feedback from participants, we will develop, make available, and promote a how-to toolkit for other conservation practitioners working with women farmers/landowners. Providing women with conservation programming tailored to meet their needs can foster improved environmental sustainability on their farms and in their communities, increase their on-farm economic viability, and strengthen the relationships among underrepresented women farmers.
Project objectives from proposal:
- Create, convene, and empower five groups of women farmers and conservation practitioners in Wisconsin (50-75 participants).
- Facilitate five workshops, featuring and co-hosted by each of the five women farmer/landowner partners to demonstrate the power of relationships, storytelling, and maps in conservation awareness and adoption.
- Learn from each workshop, participants’ feedback, and our shared experiences to develop a how-to toolkit for conservation practitioners to use to increase women-centered conservation programming that frames conservation using stories and maps.
- Reach 400+ conservation practitioners by hosting webinars, using existing outreach networks and participating in local and national outreach to share the toolkit and learning.