Legal Recognition of Women’s Role in Combating Desertification in Africa: The Case for Uganda Charlotte Kabaseke Abstract Environmental degradation is fast becoming a world wide problem as a result of desertification, especially in the face of climate change. The African continent is specifically susceptible to desertification because of its low adaptive capacity to climate change. Uganda is no exception. Women have been noted to be more affected in the face of desertification because of their socially constructed roles which require them to rely on natural resources. Because of their experience deal- ing with natural resources, women have acquired traditional knowledge on how to preserve these resources in the face of environmental changes. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) recognises women’s role in com- bating desertification. Against this background, this paper seeks to examine the effect of desertification on women and the role women have played in combating the same. The paper also analyses the extent to which the law at international, regional levels recognises women’s role in combating desertification and to what extent these laws have been domesticated and implemented in Uganda. Introduction Women have been identified to be a group very vulnerable to land degradation because of their heavy reliance of natural resources like land, forests and water bodies. This has been attributed to their socially constructed role of caretaking their households (Lau et al. 2013) which requires them to provide food, water and firewood among other necessities (Abebe 2014). Specifically, women’s role in agriculture as the world’s leading food producers has been under scored (Mor 2018; Skinner 2011). Women in Sub-saharan Africa carry out 70–80% of subsistence farming. When resources are depleted therefore, women have to move longer distances fur- ther away from their homes, in search of water, food and firewood (Aditya 2016). This not only eats into the time they would have spend on other valuable projects C. Kabaseke (B ) International Environmental Law, School of Law, Research Institute of Environmental Law, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan 430072, People’s Republic of China e-mail: charlottekabaseke@gmail.com © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Climate Change, Hazards and Adaptation Options, Climate Change Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37425-9_26 505