The idea that there is a positive synergy between women's interests and environmental conservation is examined here at two levels. First, we discuss the two main arguments in women, development and environment (WDE) literature, i.e. that women have a special and close relationship with nature, and that women are particularly altruistic and caring in their environmental management. We then scrutinize the WDE view that women are therefore the “natural” constituency for conservation projects and programs by demonstrating how a gender analysis provides both a superior framework for understanding women's and men's environmental relations and a potentially contrary view of the synergy between gender interests and environmental conservation.