After graduating from university more than twenty years ago, María Elena Herrera Ugalde joined Costa Rica’s National Forestry Financing Fund (FONAFIFO), where she was able to ignite a passion for conservation to work with landowners, women, Indigenous People and local communities to help better fund forest protection.
Now Director of Development and Marketing of Environmental Services for FONAFIFO and Director of National REDD+ Strategy, Ugalde was not initially drawn towards forestry work – which is often male-dominated. But her family’s finances ultimately led her to study a degree in forestry engineering and she has no regrets working in a field that she loves and can make a real difference to people’s lives.
“My dream was always to an anesthesiologist. But at that time, my parents' economic situation did not allow me to pursue this career as it was too costly,” Ugalde said, speaking ahead of International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March.
“I ended up with a degree in forestry engineering. From that point onwards, I began the path working in forest conservation and working with those who own and live within forests,” she proudly added.
The theme for this year’s IWD is “Rights. Equality. Empowerment” and Ugalde is among several women leaders working on REDD+ who are demonstrating what it takes to achieve progress in addressing systemic barriers and biases that women face and promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment within their forest conservation work.
In many countries, forest conservation work is male dominated, with women often excluded from decision-making process despite being on the frontline of climate change and key information holders of traditional knowledge that are vital for successful forest protection.
In Costa Rica, women often complete their studies and go on to work in public or private institutions, like Ugalde, where they encounter a traditional culture that still sees women as homemakers and favors men and their careers, she said.
“If we already have a family, it can limit us,” she said. “Imagine if one of our kids gets sick or is on a school vacation, or you need to get permission for an appointment for your child or elderly parents. It is all these types of barriers that we need to change little by little,” she added.
“We must open more spaces and more opportunities to (diminish) salary gaps and in decision-making positions. We must not bend down but rather continue to work and show that we can give the same as men.”
Ugalde’s department has supported and implemented numerous REDD+ projects with funders that include the World Bank, Green Climate Fund and UN-REDD Programme, to help promote gender equality within REDD+ action and attract additional resources and finance for forest protection.
Since Ugalde joined FONAFIFO, Costa Rica has become a forerunner and made remarkable progress in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the conservation and sustainable use of forests, with support, work and awareness-raising efforts provided by her colleagues.
When Ugalde first started to work on REDD+ in a professional capacity, she oversaw monitoring, but her role soon expanded to incorporate social safeguards and gender equality into the country ‘s efforts on REDD+ – areas she knew initially very little about.
At first, she was hesitant about working with rural women, Indigenous Peoples and local communities because she doubted she had the experience and expertise to be successful in the roles she had been given.
“That day I came home and cried,” she said. “But I got it all off my chest and, as I always do in my life, these things are to be shaken off and we must move forward.”
She began to learn all she could about safeguards, gender equality and the challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples and women, and with the support of her REDD+ team, Ugalde quickly became dedicated to these aspects. It is with this commitment and passion that she – along with a hired consultant - in 2019, developed a national gender action plan for the country’s National REDD+ Strategy, to help address gender gaps and promote women’s active and equitable involvement in forest conservation efforts at every level.
Through this work, in an attempt to close the gap in financing that women face, Ugalde helped create a fund specifically for women working in conservation, offering them capital for innovative projects related to forest conservation and sustainability.
Ugalde and her team, in collaboration with the National Institute of Women and other institutions, also created a Gender Equality Award for Productive Units that promotes equality for women, their economic autonomy and their efforts to conserve nature. It recognizes rural women doing great work within conservation, which she sees as hugely important and one of her greatest achievements.
“We listen and hear these women speak, saying how grateful they are to have been considered and to demonstrate the work they are doing – but with a (sense of) responsibility, as you are taking women out of invisibility and bringing them into a process,” she said.
“It has been a very rich process of getting to know what these women do, how they participate, how they make decisions, and their contribution to the economy. How can you not feel motivated to help these women,” she added.
“To empower them to move forward, to tell them there is a future, that we can get things done. Sometimes the process might be slow, but we are moving forward. Drop by drop, the glass is filling up and little by little, we can do things. This is a matter of patience.”
With Inputs from: Sofia Arocha, LAC Comms/KM Specialist
