Reconstructing Islamic Ecological Jurisprudence in Indonesia: A Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah Framework for Climate Resilience and Environmental Justice
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Abstract
Climate change in Indonesia presents not only an environmental challenge but also a legal and distributive justice issue, particularly amid land conversion, extractive development, forest degradation, and unequal exposure to climate risks. This study examines how Islamic ecological jurisprudence can be reconstructed to strengthen climate resilience and environmental justice within Indonesia’s plural legal order. Using a qualitative documentary legal-empirical approach, the study combines doctrinal analysis, structured content analysis of environmental laws, climate policy documents, and MUI fatwas, alongside secondary analysis of published climate litigation data. The findings reveal substantial normative convergence between Islamic ecological principles and environmental justice, particularly in the prevention of harm, protection of life and livelihoods, ecological sustainability, public responsibility, and accountability. However, significant institutional fragmentation remains, as ecological norms are not consistently translated into justice-sensitive mechanisms addressing vulnerability, participation, recognition, cumulative harm, intergenerational responsibility, and remedies. To address this gap, the study proposes the Maqāṣid Ecological Justice Framework (MEJF), which conceptualizes ecological integrity as an enabling condition for protecting life, progeny, intellect, property, and human dignity. The framework introduces six operational criteria for climate governance and fatwa formulation: ecological integrity, protection of essential interests, vulnerability and distribution, participation and recognition, intergenerational responsibility, and accountability and remedy. The study contributes a maqāṣid-based framework for connecting Islamic ecological jurisprudence with contemporary environmental justice and climate governance in Indonesia.
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