Rapports sociaux de sexe et vulnérabilité différenciée au changement climatique chez les baka de Djoum et les Mbororo de l’Extreme- Nord du Cameroun

Abstract

This research proposes to analyze the influence of social gender relations on the differentiated vulnerability to climate change among the Baka and the Mbororo communities of Cameroon. Starting from a questioning of the position stipulating the greater vulnerability of Baka and Mbororo women to climate change; it questions how gender relations shape the differentiated vulnerability to climate change among the Baka and Mbororo of Cameroon. To do this, this study is based on data collected in Mbororo localities in the Far North of Cameroon and Baka villages in Djoum in southern Cameroon. Following a comprehensive and explanatory approach, qualitative data collection techniques were preferred. The analyzes are based on a constructivist reading grid of social reality. Results of the research indicate that social gender relations through the gender division of labor and power inequalities are the main factors of gender-differentiated vulnerability to climate change among the Baka and Mbororo of Cameroon. Thus, the gendered division of labor defines the level of exposure and sensitivity of women and men to climate change; and power relations determine the adaptative capacity of men and women. Furthermore, initiatives and projects to combat climate change, based on eco-feminist representations, reinforce asymmetrical power relations between men and women and exacerbate the vulnerability of both men and women to climate change. While it is true that Baka and Mbororo women have multiple vulnerabilities in the face of climate change, it is wrong to equate this vulnerability with passivity. On the contrary, this “vulnerability” reveals their capacity to act, in a word it is a question of a vulnerability in resistance.