Abstract: Environmental degradation in many areas has resulted in natural disasters which haveserious impact on human life. The disasters are caused by human activities which are notenvironmentally friendly. Therefore, active participation of all people, both men and women, is badlyneeded. The importance of women participation in land rehabilitation has been regulated in someregulations, both in national and international level. This article discusses how to increase womenparticipation in land rehabilitation through gender integration in local governance and the actualchallenges to integrate gender dimension.The idea to integrate gender dimension in local governance as an effort to improve womenparticipation in land rehabilitation is based on research results in the scheme of Postgraduate Grantfrom the Directorate of Higher Education which has been undertaken by the author and her team fora year in the slope of Mount Lawu, particularly in the Karanganyar Regency. Data were collectedusing several methods including site observation, interview, focus group discussion and documentstudy by involving key informants who were purposively selected. Analysis method employed in theresearch was Harvard model of gender analysis.Results indicate that women participation in land rehabilitation is limited because of thedomestication of women in land rehabilitation, stereotype of physical barrier for women in landrehabilitation, as well as the public policy on land management which is not yet gender responsive.Because of this women do not have bargaining power in land management. Therefore, it is significantto strengthen women participation in land management through gender integration in localgovernance, either through gender mainstreaming or affirmative action. Gender mainstreaming inland management is done by integrating gender equity in planning, operating, monitoring, andevaluating rehabilitation programs and activities in the local context; while affirmative action is doneby constructing regulation and credible commitment which determines the minimal standard ofwomen representation as the board of Lembaga Masyarakat Desa Hutan (LMDH) (the association ofpeople living in the surrounding area of the forest). Women representation in organization is essentialbecause LMDH is local organization which has strategic role in land management, both economicallyand ecologically.Besides strengthening women participation through gender mainstreaming and affirmativeaction, there is a need to improve women capacity, both individually and collectively. Individualcapacity improvement consists of several aspects including material aspect, human resources, socialand political aspects. Collective capacity improvement is done by developing voice mechanism,structuring the organization and representation. The challenges to strengthen women participation inland rehabilitation include strengthening the capacity of local governance in order to be genderresponsive; improving women capacity through competence development in land management, andopening mechanism for the members of local organization to put forward their aspiration throughvoices mechanism.