1. Coleman, E. A. & Mwangi, E. Women’s participation in forest management: a cross-country analysis. Glob. Environ. Change 23, 193–205 (2013).

2. Agarwal, B. Gender Challenges (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2016).

3. Andersson, K. et al. Experimental evidence on payments for forest commons conservation. Nat. Sustain. 1, 128–135 (2018).

4. Gatiso, T. T., Vollan, B., Vimal, R. & Kühl, H. S. If possible, incentivize individuals not groups: evidence from lab-in-the-field experiments on forest conservation in rural. Conserv. Lett. 11, e12387 (2018).

5. Kaczan, D., Pfaff, A., Rodriguez, L. & Shapiro-Garza, E. Increasing the impact of collective incentives in payments for ecosystem services. J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 86, 48–67 (2017).

6. Kerr, J. M., Vardhan, M. & Jindal, R. Incentives, conditionality and collective action in payment for environmental services. Int. J. Commons 8, 595–616 (2014).

7. Salk, C., Lopez, M.-C. & Wong, G. Simple incentives and group dependence for successful payments for ecosystem services programs: evidence from an experimental game in rural Lao PDR. Conserv. Lett. 10, 414–421 (2017).

8. Southgate, D. & Wunder, S. Paying for watershed services in Latin America: a review of current initiatives. J. Sustain. For. 28, 497–524 (2009).

9. Huang, M., Upadhyaya, S. K., Jindal, R. & Kerr, J. Payments for watershed services in Asia: a review of current initiatives. J. Sustain. For. 28, 551–575 (2009).

10. Wunder, S. et al. From principles to practice in paying for nature’s services. Nat. Sustain. 1, 145–150 (2018).

11. Alston, L. J., Andersson, K. P. & Smith, S. Payment for environmental services: hypotheses and evidence. Annu. Rev. Resour. Economics 5, 139–159 (2013).

12. Andersson, K. et al. Wealth and the distribution of benefits from tropical forests: implications for REDD+. Land Use Policy 72, 510–522 (2018).

13. Andersson, K. & Agrawal, A. Inequalities, institutions, and forest commons. Glob. Environ. Change 21, 866–875 (2011).

14. Iversen, V. et al. High value forests, hidden economies and elite capture: evidence from forest user groups in Nepal’s Terai. Ecol. Econ. 58, 93–107 (2006).

15. Persha, L. & Andersson, K. Elite capture risk and mitigation in decentralized forest governance regimes. Glob. Environ. Change 24, 265–276 (2014).

16. Cummins, D. The problem of gender quotas: women’s representatives on Timor-Leste’s suku councils. Dev. Pract. 21, 85–95 (2011).

17. Mairena, E. et al. Gender and Forests in Nicaragua’s Indigenous Territories: from National Policy to Local Practice CIFOR Working Paper 151 (CIFOR, 2012).

18. Edlund, L. & Pande, R. Why have women become left-wing? the political gender gap and the decline in marriage. Q. J. Econ. 117, 917–961 (2002).

19. Chattopadhyay, R. & Duflo, E. Women as policy makers: evidence from a randomized policy experiment in India. Econometrica 72, 1409–1443 (2004).

20. Olken, B. A. Direct democracy and local public goods: evidence from a field experiment in Indonesia. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 104, 243–267 (2010).

21. Gottlieb, J., Grossman, G. & Robinson, A. L. Do men and women have different policy preferences in Africa? Determinants and implications of gender gaps in policy prioritization. Br. J. Polit. Sci. 48, 611–636 (2018).

22. Devlin, C. & Elgie, R. The effect of increased women’s representation in parliament: the case of Rwanda. Parliam. Aff. 61, 237–254 (2008).

23. Clayton, A., Josefsson, C. & Wang, V. Quotas and women’s substantive representation: evidence from a content analysis of Ugandan plenary debates. Polit. Gend. 13, 276–304 (2017).

24. Forsythe, R., Horowitz, J. L., Savin, N. E. & Sefton, M. Fairness in simple bargaining experiments. Games Econ. Behav. 6, 347–369 (1994).

25. Eckel, C. C. & Grossman, P. J. Are women less selfish than men?: Evidence from dicator experiments. Econ. J. 108, 726–735 (1998).

26. Selten, R. & Ockenfels, A. An experimental solidarity game. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 34, 517–539 (1998).

27. Dickinson, D. L. & Tiefenthaler, J. What is fair? Experimental evidence. South. Econ. J. 69, 414–428 (2002).

28. Engel, C. Dictator games: a meta study. Exp. Econ. 14, 583–610 (2011).

29. Leisher, C. et al. Does the gender composition of forest and fishery management groups affect resource governance and conservation outcomes? A systematic map. Environ. Evid. 5, 6 (2016).

30. Meinzen-Dick, R., Kovarik, C. & Quisumbing, A. R. Gender and sustainability. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 39, 29–55 (2014).

31. Doss, C., Meinzen-Dick, R., Quisumbing, A. & Theis, S. Women in agriculture: four myths. Glob. Food Sec. 16, 69–74 (2018).

32. Greig, F. & Bohnet, I. Exploring gendered behavior in the field with experiments: why public goods are provided by women in a Nairobi slum. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 70, 1–9 (2009).

33. Fearon, J. & Humphreys, M. Why Do Women Co-operate More in Women’s Groups? WIDER Working Paper 163/2017 (World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER), 2017).

34. Hayo, B. & Vollan, B. Group interaction, heterogeneity, rules, and co-operative behaviour: evidence from a common-pool resource experiment in South Africa and Namibia. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 81, 9–28 (2012).

35. Croson, R. & Gneezy, U. Gender differences in preferences. J. Econ. Lit. 47, 448–474 (2009).

36. Miller, L. & Ubeda, P. Are women more sensitive to the decision-making context? J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 83, 98–104 (2012).

37. Agarwal, B. Participatory exclusions, community forestry and gender: an analysis for South Asia and a conceptual framework. World Dev. 29, 1623–1648 (2001).

38. Agarwal, B. Gender and forest conservation: the impact of women’s participation in community forest governance. Ecol. Econ. 68, 2785–2799 (2009).

39. Mwangi, E., Meinzen-Dick, R. & Sun, Y. Gender and sustainable forest management in East Africa and Latin America. Ecol. Soc. 16, 17 (2011).

40. Suna, Y., Mwangi, E. & Meinzen-Dick, R. Is gender an important factor influencing user groups’ property rights and forestry governance? Empirical analysis from East Africa and Latin America. Int. For. Rev. 13, 205–219 (2011).

41. Ostrom, E., Gardner, R. & Walker, J. Rules, Games, and Common-pool Resources (Univ. Michigan Press, 1994).

42. Kimbrough, E. O. & Vostroknutov, A. The social and ecological determinants of common pool resource sustainability. J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 72, 38–53 (2015).

43. Miteva, D. A., Pattanayak, S. K. & Ferraro, P. J. Evaluation of biodiversity policy instruments: what works and what doesn’t? Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 28, 69–92 (2012).

44. Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. & Norenzayan, A. Most people are not WEIRD. Nature 466, 29 (2010).

45. Gelcich, S., Guzman, R., Rodriguez-Sickert, C., Castilla, J. C. & Cardenas, J. C. Exploring external validity of common pool resource experiments: insights from artisanal benthic fisheries in Chile. Ecol. Soc. 18, 2 (2013).

46. Beaman, L., Duflo, E., Pande, R. & Topalova, P. Female leadership raises aspirations and educational attainment for girls: a policy experiment in India. Science 335, 582–586 (2012).

47. Giri, K. & Darnhofer, I. Nepali women using community forestry as a platform for social change. Soc. Nat. Resour. 23, 1216–1229 (2010).

48. Franceschet, S. & Piscopo, J. M. Gender quotas and women’s substantive representation: lessons from Argentina. Polit. Gend. 4, 393–425 (2008).

49. Tinker, I. Quotas for women in elected legislatures: do they really empower women? Womens Stud. Int. Forum 27, 531–546 (2004).

50. Desposato, S. & Norrander, B. The gender gap in Latin America: contextual and individual influences on gender and political participation. Br. J. Polit. Sci. 39, 141–162 (2009).

51. Guidelines for Community Forestry Development Programme Second Revision (Government of Nepal, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Department of Forests, Community Forest Division, 2009).

52. Bolton, G. E., Katok, E. & Zwick, R. Dictator game giving: rules of fairness versus acts of kindness. Int. J. Game Theory 27, 269–299 (1998).

53. Intons-Peterson, M. J. Imagery paradigms: how vulnerable are they to experimenters’ expectations?. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 9, 394–412 (1983).

54. West, B. T., Welch, K. B. & Galecki, A. T. Linear Mixed Models (Taylor & Francis, 2015).