Security and Gender in Bio-ecopolitical Strategies

Abstract

This paper problematizes the operation of bio-ecopolitical strategies that mobilize security and the concept of gender to regulate populations. The strategies, which belong to global program documents issued by two international authorities – the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) –, operate for the security of a sustainable future on the planet. Based on tools of Michel Foucault’s biopolitics and of ecopolitics, this study highlights women as a vulnerable population in environmental programs as shown by statistics and the concern for the future on the planet. Attention is paid to the way in which gender and environmental relations are developed.