GROW - Through Fungi

CEI Member Elizabeth (Za) Barron recently convened a two-day workshop “Gender, Rights and Opportunities for Women – through Fungi” in Cotonou, Benin, as part of the Fourth International Congress on Fungal Conservation.

The GROW workshop brought together researchers and practitioners from a range of backgrounds, including agroecology, conservation biology, midwifery and teaching, and from Sub-Saharan countries that included Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

Discussion focused on topics such as sustainable fungal use and women’s livelihoods; the link between fungal livelihoods, gender and public health; and strategies for sharing scientific data, ethnobiological data, and traditional ecological knowledge to improve mushroom conservation practices. 

The workshop was also an opportunity to connect participants who had previously worked on publications in their areas of experience and expertise, including those who had contributed to a special issue, published in September 2025, of Current Conservation, the magazine’s first ever issue dedicated to fungal conservation (and edited by Barron).

Barron is building on the workshop by consolidating a network to search for funding to continue the work on fungal conservation and women’s livelihoods. This is in collaboration with the Fungal Conservation Committee (IUCN) and the Biodiversity and Family Planning Inter-Commission (IUCN).

The workshop was funded by a grant from Jamma Conservation and Communities, and administered by the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Community Economies Institute.