Natural Law, Local Wisdom, And Environmental Protection: Reconstructing Customary Ecological Norms In Indonesian Law

Abstract

Indonesia’s environmental crisis is often framed as a failure of enforcement, yet it also reflects a philosophical problem: the dominance of an anthropocentric and positivist conception of law that treats nature as an object of state control. Customary law communities (masyarakat hukum adat) have long governed forests, seas, and rivers through norms rooted in a cosmology of reciprocity between humans and nature. This article asks how such local wisdom can be understood through natural law philosophy, how Indonesian positive law recognizes it, and what gaps remain. Using a normative juridical method with statute, case, and conceptual approaches, the article analyzes the 1945 Constitution, Law No. 32 of 2009 on Environmental Protection and Management, Law No. 41 of 1999 on Forestry, Law No. 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code, and Constitutional Court Decision No. 35/PUU-X/2012, and draws on the examples of Tri Hita Karana in Bali, sasi in Maluku, and the pikukuh of the Baduy community. The findings show that local wisdom embodies a relational form of natural law in which legal obligations derive from the order of nature and the common good. Positive law recognizes local wisdom, but conditionally, subject to administrative requirements, the unitary state principle, and sectoral interests, so that recognition remains fragmented and rarely protective. The article argues for an ecologically oriented natural law as an interpretive bridge and proposes a comprehensive statute on customary communities, simplified recognition procedures, and the integration of customary norms into environmental impact assessment and the implementation of the new Criminal Code.