The Making of a Decision: Women's Voice in the Management of Cacao in Coastal Ecuador

Research has shown that men and women place different values on environmental services obtained and agricultural practices that contribute to the restoration and conservation of these services with several studies pointing out that women have a preference for agroforestry and other sustainable production methods. Our research used game theory to develop a model on household decision-making in order to examine how strengthening women’s voice in household production decisions would influence adoption of sustainable farming practices. We applied this model to the case of agroforestry cacao production in Ecuador, based on household surveys conducted with 300 families. Through a logit estimation, which included independent variables for female and male household head’s educational levels, wealth, access to welfare payments and each gender’s valuation of ecological services from cacao agroforests, we discovered that households were more likely to manage agroforestry parcels when women were wealthier, received welfare payments and were willing to pay more for ecological services. Interventions to strengthen women’s economic position by granting them equal property and inheritance rights may enhance women’s voice in production decisions, leading not only to more just decisions, as both men and women’s preferences are taken into account, but possibly more ecologically sound decisions.