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RIGHTS: Dying for Firewood

Lisa Söderlindh

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 2006 (IPS) - Just collecting the cooking fuel essential for survival, millions of refugee and so-called internally displaced women are daily forced to put their lives at risk, says a new report by the New York-based Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Uprooted from their homes by armed conflict, persecution and humanitarian disasters, almost 35 million people in the world live as internally displaced persons (IDPs) within the borders of their own countries, or as refugees across international borders. But for women and girls living in IDP and refugee settings, life is particularly grim and surrounding threats are notoriously dangerous, according to the report.

“Every day, millions of displaced women and girls must collect firewood for their families in dangerous conditions and are at a risk of rape, assault, abduction, theft and even death,” said Women’s Commission Executive Director Carolyn Makinson. “They have no choice – it’s a matter of survival.”

Refugee and displaced persons camps are supposed to be safe places, created to protect and assist some of the most vulnerable populations in the world. But while shelter, water, health care and food is provided, “very rarely are they given the fuel needed to cook that food”, notes the report. “They must find it on their own, no matter the threat.”

Cooking fuel is of crucial importance to nearly everyone in the world, but for refuges and IDPs, it cannot be taken for granted. It is the most complex and multi-faceted problem that they deal with on a daily basis, according to the report, which is the first of its kind in offering ways to mitigate the risks associated with collecting firewood.

Not only does cooking fuel, most commonly used in the form of firewood, provide the necessary means to eat, it is also a non-food item, often used as construction material or for health care. In addition, it is an important source of income, since cooking fuel can be sold or traded.

However, as the report reveals through visits to various IDP and refugee settings, the risks associated with collecting cooking fuel have been widely known for many years, but often remain overlooked by the international community and humanitarian organisations which see it as a “women’s issue”.

Indeed, the burdens and risks associated with collecting cooking fuel fall disproportionately on girls and women, since there are few other sources of cooking fuel or income available to them. The risks vary in different IDP and refugee settings, which are obviously hardest in situations of ongoing conflict – Darfur, Sudan being perhaps the most dangerous place in the world for women to collect firewood.

On the outskirts of the Abu Shouk IDP camp in northern Darfur, women and girls begin their search for firewood at three o’clock in the morning. They leave in small groups, each going in different directions, into the surrounding desert, hoping to find enough wood to last at least for the day, and to be back to the camp in time to cook breakfast before sunrise.

But the few trees that provided nearby sources of cooking fuel when the camps were first built more than two years ago are long gone. Finding a single tree often means walking for several hours, and many girls and women resolve to dig by hand in the clay soil for pieces of root.

As a result, they often fall victim to the Sudanese government military forces, or the Darfur militia group, the Janjaweed, which waits in the deep desert. Both are well aware of the women’s early morning treks, and feel free to “take advantage of the absence of any kind of rule of law to commit mass rape and sexual assault”, the report says.

“The attackers know they will not be caught, but even worse, the women and girls are well aware of what will happen to them when the venture out to collect firewood,” said Makinson.

The situation grows more dire every day, “as the threats persists and the trees are getting scarcer, the women must go further and further to find wood”, states the report.

In other settings, such as among the approximately 105,000 Bhutanese refugees that live in eastern Nepal, sexual attacks on the women and girls outside the camps occur less often. Yet locally hired “forest guards” remain a constant threat for refugee girls who have been gang-raped and murdered in the forest, according to the report.

And there, “the situation becomes even more problematic since Nepalese law prohibits refugees to engage in any income generation activity”, Anjana Shakya, executive director of the Beyond Beijing Committee and the Himalayan Human Rights Monitors, or HimRights, told IPS. “The women themselves are not allowed to go in the woods to get firewood, therefore they cannot go to the police and report the crimes they are subjected to.”

Despite the risks associated with fuel collection in different IDP and refugee settings, the problem is found worldwide. And it is one that the “international community can do something about”, said Makinson, pointing to the need for coordinated action and a multi-faceted response to address the long-neglected issue.

Wolfgang Trautwein, Germany’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said it was only by understanding the day-to-day lives of women and girls that special measures could be adopted to protect them from gender-based violence in situations of armed conflict.

“Fuel alternatives and firewood collection are important aspects of prevention that urgently need to be addressed,” said the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, who raised the need for protection strategies in displaced and refugee situations worldwide.

Fuel-efficient stoves that are solar-powered, food that requires less cooking, and cooking techniques that require less time were some of the specific measures outlined to change the current situation.

The report also recommended ensuring basic physical protection, such as sending patrols out with women and girls as they collected firewood, as well as bringing in fuel in the early stages of a humanitarian crisis. Not least, income-generating opportunities for refugees and displaced populations must be provided.

“There are many levers that can be pushed,” said Makinson.

However, as the report recommends, “the United Nations agency should be responsible for any particular emergency, designate a single organisation to lead and coordinate efforts across all sectors”. In that way, it will be possible to know who is responsible for thinking about the various solutions, she said.