women have little or no representation. As a result, women's needs and priorities—especially regarding fuelwood collection—are not addressed.

In Indonesia also, women's rights to participate in forest management groups are not formally protected. Usually only the household head signs the reforestation contract, and in most families the household head is defined as a male. Female-headed households, especially those where no older man or son is available to work, are generally excluded from consideration as members of a Forest Farmer Group. If the goal of the social forestry program is to improve the economic circumstances of forest-dependent poor villagers, female-headed households must be more systematically included, as they are commonly among the poorest of the poor. Moreover, although women too can sign the contracts, only a few demand this right out of fear of ridicule. This issue has not been pursued aggressively because of the persistent belief among the male program participants that the wives of group members would be protected by the group should their husbands die.