Resource governance · Indigenous rights
Resource Nationalism
A field guide to four mechanisms of resource nationalism — and the blind spot that appears when state control over rent is mistaken for community consent.
Mining · Closure planning
Mine Closure
Mine closure is the planned process of shutting a mine, restoring affected land and securing money for monitoring and remediation after extraction ends.
Core concept · FPIC
Free, Prior and Informed Consent
FPIC is not a consultation meeting or a social licence slogan. It is the right of Indigenous Peoples to grant, withhold, condition or withdraw consent before decisions affecting their lands, territories and resources are made.
Critical minerals · Transition governance
Transition Minerals
Critical minerals are not only a supply-chain issue. They are becoming a rights, finance and accountability problem wherever extraction overlaps with Indigenous lands and climate-transition policy.
Electoral design
Opportunity Districts
An opportunity district is designed to give an underrepresented community a real chance to elect a representative of its choice — under public criteria, legal constraints and institutional scrutiny.
Vote dilution
Cracking and Packing
Cracking splits a community across districts so it wins nowhere. Packing concentrates it into one district so its votes are wasted there. Both can preserve formal voting rights while weakening collective representation.
Mining finance · Accountability
Who Finances a Mining Project?
Public money can enter a project through development banks, export credit agencies, guarantees and insurers. Each route creates a different trail of safeguards, disclosure duties and possible complaints.
Critical minerals · Rights
Why Mineral Security Needs Indigenous Rights
A secure supply chain is not only a question of geology, processing and geopolitics. Projects that ignore consent and relationships can create the very delays and conflicts that security strategies are meant to prevent.
Climate law · Litigation
What Does Climate Litigation Change?
Climate cases are moving beyond emissions targets. Courts are increasingly asked to examine transition minerals, carbon markets, government duties and whether climate action respects Indigenous rights.
Remedy · Cultural loss
Can Compensation Repair Cultural Loss?
Courts may recognise cultural harm while still valuing the economic loss of extraction narrowly. The gap between recognition and remedy shows why compensation cannot be the only accountability mechanism.
Climate governance · Institutions
Can an Advisory Parliament Hold Power?
Indigenous representative bodies matter only when institutions can verify their mandate, carry decisions into governance and make participation consequential rather than decorative.