October 15 is the International Day of Rural Women, a date established by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 2007 to highlight the importance of women in economic development and the eradication of poverty. This event also underlines the key role of women living in rural areas, as they are essential to promote economic, social and environmental transformations. Currently, according to UN data, women living in rural areas account for a quarter of the world’s population, so they have a key role in the development and strengthening of economies, in global food supply and in building resilience to climate change. Agriculture is their main sector of employment, but rural women are also a fundamental part of the process of preserving and conserving the biodiversity of agricultural systems, given their participation in rural societies, and in the maintenance of the culture and traditions of local communities.

However, women in these environments continue to face significant discrimination in terms of agricultural resource ownership, as less than 15% of agricultural landowners worldwide are women. According to UN Women data, rural women suffer disproportionately from the multiple aspects of poverty and do not have the same access to land, credit, agricultural materials, markets or chains of high-value cultivated products. They also do not enjoy equitable access to public services, such as education and healthcare, or infrastructure, such as water and sanitation. Aware that women are key agents in achieving the economic, environmental and social changes necessary for the development and structuring of the territory, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) supports through the Emprendeverde Network and the Empleaverde+ Programme the development of projects led by women in rural areas, as well as access to training related to the environment. On the one hand, the Emprendeverde Network supports different entrepreneurship projects promoted by women in rural areas through training and support programs in dissemination, thus recognizing their contribution to green employment and as active social agents in the generation of wealth and protection of biodiversity. An example is “Tu ternera en casa“, a meat company located in Murias de Paredes (Omaña, León), within the Biosphere Reserve of the Omaña and Luna Valleys, for which it has the national brand Spanish Biosphere Reserves. It is led by Aída Rodrigo, a lawyer and hotelier, who launched this initiative in 2021 to sell local veal at home through her online store, without intermediaries. The business model is based on the traditional management of cattle to consume the same meat that our ancestors ate, respecting the environment, with extensive livestock, fed without fattening, based on organic pastures, cereal feed and mother’s milk from its more than 100 mother cows. Another case is that of Cristina García, biologist and director of Algas La Patrona, whose link with the marine environment was one of her motivations to launch this initiative to produce seaweed for human food in Cambados (Pontevedra). The project team is made up of women who love the sea. To collect the seaweed, they collaborate with fishermen who cut them by diving at shallow depths. D2Naturaleza is an ecotourism project that proposes to get to know and enjoy nature by carrying out environmental education activities in the surroundings of the Sierra del Guadarrama and its National Park. Its director, Henar Roldán, studied biology and decided to embark on this project to raise awareness about the importance of respecting nature.

On the other hand, the Empleaverde+ Programme, co-financed by the ESF+, prioritises the participation of women and people living in rural areas in its projects aimed at acquiring or improving the skills necessary to address new employment or entrepreneurship opportunities within the framework of a green economy. Likewise, the Biodiversity Foundation, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, supports various innovative and transformative projects for the promotion of the bioeconomy and the contribution to the ecological transition. In this sense, the Global Nature Foundation develops “Grazing Nature”, which seeks to value pastoralism as a necessary economic activity in the current context of the demographic challenge for nature conservation, economic recovery and the fight against climate change, making visible the role of women and guaranteeing their participation in all the activities of the project.

Finally, the Trade for Development Foundation (COPADE) carries out “From the forest to your home” (DBC), with the aim of generating innovative economic initiatives led by women to give sustainable use to non-timber forest products from Spanish forests. The initiative works on the creation of small-scale bakeries and laboratories that train women to become entrepreneurs and leaders of these businesses.