Banking on the creativity of the people as a major economic driver, the concept of the creative city has emerged as a promising model for development. However, the people’s creativity is heavily influenced by the local culture, whose foundations include the local natural resources. The economic orientation of the creative city model could marginalise natural resources in development policy and programmes. Such marginalisation could potentially expose both natural and cultural resources to detrimental long-term harm from unsustainable development processes. Thus, this chapter utilises Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to analyse the institutional arrangements of creative cities and evaluate the viability of reframing the creative city model as a tool for natural resource conservation. Using document review to compare case studies of designated UNESCO creative cities in the Philippines, namely, Baguio, Cebu, and Iloilo, and their close counterparts in selected Asian countries, namely, Chiang Mai (Thailand), Singapore (a city-state), and Macao (China), respectively, this chapter examines how their governance mechanisms navigate the tension between economic development and natural resource conservation. Ultimately, the findings of this chapter offer valuable insights into how development policies and programmes can balance the economic ambitions of creative cities with the need to conserve their natural resources.