PIP: The focus on gender and the environment highlighted important features of articles included in this issue. The general concern was that women are not considered in the thinking about economic development and environmental issues. The Joan Davison article noted the close relationship of women to their surroundings and degradation, which was affected by debt and structural adjustment, trade, aid, war, and the social structure. Women's access to land and their marginal role in society, law, and economic life needs to be addressed by the environmentally aware. The Judy Adoko article reported on the outrageous criticism by development workers in Uganda of women using wood for fuel, when little attention is focused on the commercialization of firewood. The important communication was that women are limited in their choices and make the most of what they have out of necessity, and not out of a short-term solution compromising their children's future. Environmental stability can be achieved in part through removal of the causes of women's poverty. Women's time and energy are tightly constrained; Irene Guijt's views reflected the concern about assumptions that women's participation in environmental protection can be secured without direct benefit to them. The problem of women's health was considered by Joanne Harnmeijer and Ann Waters-Bayer, who focused on increased agricultural productivity projects which have not taken into account the increased burden of work in time or effort or in terms of the impact of children, both as producers and as a demand on time, energy, and health. Population control has been justified because of its impact on consumption of natural resources in developing countries, without due consideration of developed countries consumption patterns. Hazards in the environment and work place have increased with increasing international trade and industrialization. Industry attracting women workers has been established without concern for sanitation, disease, pollution, or social services. Women plantation workers have often been given the most hazardous jobs with agrochemicals. Rasheda Begum detailed the impact of natural disasters on women. Environmental solutions must be tailored to specific conditions, rather than at the expense of global unification and self-evident assumptions. Acceptability and sustainability for women must be a feature of environmental protection.