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Protect rights and advance gender equality to mitigate climate change

Initiatives to protect carbon sinks are crucial to mitigate climate change and avert its worst effects. Advancing the rights of women and forest-dependent communities will strengthen these initiatives and enable them to have greater impact.

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Fig. 1: Deforestation in Indigenous territories in the Legal Amazon, Brazil.

References

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All authors contributed to conceptualizing and writing the Comment using case examples from their various research projects at Human Rights Watch.

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Correspondence to Juliana Nnoko-Mewanu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nnoko-Mewanu, J., Téllez-Chávez, L. & Rall, K. Protect rights and advance gender equality to mitigate climate change. Nat. Clim. Chang. 11, 368–370 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01043-4

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