Contemporary resource governance systems are largely organised around private ownership and extractivist development models that prioritise export-oriented growth over local rights and ecological limits. This has enabled the enclosure and exploitation of indigenous lands and the systematic marginalisation of communities. These arrangements sever decision-making from those most directly dependent on ecosystems, undermining long-term stewardship and eroding collective rights. Experiences from First Nations in Canada further demonstrate that even where formal recognition exists, deprivation, chronic underinvestment, and weak service provision persist in the absence of sovereignty and material control. In contrast, a commons-based approach recognises land, water, forests, fisheries, and knowledge systems as shared resources that should be governed through democratic, community-led institutions. It recommends that governments move beyond procedural inclusion to legally uphold Indigenous jurisdiction over territories, including full authority to refuse extractive projects and to determine alternative pathways of land use grounded in their own laws and governance systems. This includes enforcing collective land rights, guaranteeing free, prior, and informed consent, and dismantling legal and institutional frameworks that enable dispossession. Public policy should prioritise the protection of land defenders, support land back initiatives, and redirect investment toward community-led systems of care, subsistence, and ecological stewardship.
