Member:
L'Union Nationale de la Femme Tunisienne - Tunisia

Women and Environment in Tunisia
1 September 2005, Tunisie

Union Nationale de la Femme Tunisienne (UNFT) is a non-governmental national organization which aims at promoting women rights and gender equity and equality. The UNFT also supports the role of women in the socio-economic development of the country by educating and informing women and stimulating their participation in decision-making processes and in other cultural and social institutions.

Environmental protection is also a key area of work for this NGO. Through a programme named 'Alliance Femme et Environnement', they have been developing a range of activities such as field conservation projects, public awareness campaigns and solidarity actions in order to preserve biodiversity and improve women's quality of life and enable them to play an enhanced role in sustainable development.

Most of these projects highlight the hidden chest of knowledge and experience in managing and conserving natural resources that rural women have in Tunisia and how this traditional knowledge can help combat desertification, value medicinal plants and support ecotourism and eco-products. Examples include: women in Jradou supported by UNFT are part of a project to create and elaborate new eco-products such as 'esparto green packaging' based upon traditional knowledge in order to improve their incomes. In Oued Laabid, women are trained and equipped on how to distill medicinal plants. You can now see women showing their products extracted from aromatic and medicinal plants in their villages. Other projects are focused on plastic waste, use of renewable energies and environmental education.

All in all, the ultimate environmental goal for this NGO is to show that women are an indispensable partner in achieving sustainable development.

For further information, please contact Chaabouni Samah

Links:

L'Union Nationale de la Femme Tunisienne (UNFT)