Cambodia’s first Gender and Environment Survey exposes unequal impacts of climate crisis

JOINT PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

Bangkok/Phnom Penh — The findings of Cambodia’s first Gender and Environment Survey, rolled out in 2024, reveal high exposure to environmental and climate change hazards, and the different impacts faced by women compared to men.

Hazard exposure is high in Cambodia. Almost 9 in 10 people live in areas of high environmental risk and 99 per cent experienced at least one disaster in the past 12 months, with 75 per cent experiencing at least three over the same period. Although women and men are equally likely to be exposed to such hazards, their impacts differ.

• Rural women and those displaced by disasters or other climate hazards are more likely to experience barriers to accessing medical health and hygiene products (19 per cent of displaced women experienced challenges, compared to 13 per cent of non-displaced people overall).
• Women are more likely than men to report disaster-related damaged or destroyed crops (53 versus 42 per cent) and livestock deaths and disease (35 versus 26 per cent).
• More women than men increased their unpaid childcare work due to disasters (26 compared to 22 per cent).

Climate change is hurting physical and mental health. As many as 77 per cent of Cambodians have seen their mental health worsen as a result of slow-onset climate hazards, with women more likely than men to report stress and anxiety. Physical health impacts were also widespread, affecting nearly half of women (48 per cent) and men (45 per cent). Furthermore, as a result of the changing climate, many people are resorting to giving up their food in favour of feeding others. Single parents are those most likely to report eating less as a result of climate change (20 per cent); and partnered women are more likely than partnered men to reduce food intake (12 versus 9 per cent).

Agriculture under pressure. As a result of climate change, agricultural yields are dropping. To maintain their livelihoods many farmers are practicing seed selection, an encouraging practice that should be maintained. Others, however, are applying pesticides and fertilizers in larger quantities to limit their losses (24 per cent). These practices have devastating consequences in the long term. For instance, 70 per cent of those who apply pesticides have noticed soil degradation, compared to roughly 30 per cent of those who don’t apply pesticides or fertilizers.

Forests rapidly disappearing. As many as 64 per cent of women and 58 per cent of men who use primary forests, wild pastures, mangroves or other forms of wild wooded land noted their degradation. Many also said they can’t find the same variety and quantity of animals and plants as they did in the past. Women are especially vulnerable to these losses as they are more likely to rely on primary forests for the bulk of their income. While more women than men use sustainable practices such as alternating grazing periods or locations to enable replenishment, uptake of other sustainable forest management practices remains below 30 per cent.

Farmers, fishers, and gatherers excluded from decisions. Despite their reliance on natural resources, women and men have little say in environmental governance. Only 5 per cent of those who fetch water engage in water management committees, and less than 7 per cent of those who gather forest products participate in communal land governance and forest groups. The shares are even lower for fishery management or climate-related processes. Empowering people who rely on the environment to participate in related decision-making processes could promote environmental sustainability in the long term.

Cambodia joins a growing number of countries that have rolled out stand-alone gender and environment surveys supported by UN Women’s “Women Count” programme – such as Mongolia, Samoa and Tonga.

“The findings highlight the urgent need to put a gender lens at the centre of environmental policy,” says Sara Duerto Valero, Regional Gender Statistics Advisor for UN Women in Asia and the Pacific. “Cambodia has set an outstanding example by taking the first and most important step: collecting quality gender data to understand the issue”.

Cambodia's Gender and Environment Survey was supported by UN Women's Women Count programme, a multi-donor programme with contributions from the Governments of Australia, France, Ireland, Italy and Sweden, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The programme seeks to create an enabling environment for the production of gender data, support the generation of gender statistics, and support gender data use globally.