Non-Excessive Natural Resource Use and Sustainable Development: The Indigenous Environmental Wisdom of Lubuk Larangan

Imamulhadi Imamulhadi; Eva Nuriyah Hidayat; Fadhil Wirdiyan Ihsan

doi:10.21697/seb.5910

Published: 2026-10-07

Non-Excessive Natural Resource Use and Sustainable Development: The Indigenous Environmental Wisdom of Lubuk Larangan

Imamulhadi Imamulhadi

, Eva Nuriyah Hidayat

, Fadhil Wirdiyan Ihsan

Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.21697/seb.5910

Abstract

Sustainable development has guided global environmental governance for nearly four decades, yet continuing environmental degradation indicates persistent limitations in its implementation. This article examines whether clearer normative limits on natural resource use can strengthen sustainable development. It explores the Indonesian customary institution of Lubuk Larangan and identifies the principles of non-excessive utilization, sufficiency, and simplicity embedded in its Indigenous environmental wisdom. Using a normative juridical method, the study analyzes legal instruments, scholarly literature, and published ethnographic research through historical, systematic, and sociological interpretation. It argues that sustainable development becomes more difficult to achieve when profit-driven production and non-essential consumption exceed reasonable human needs and ecological limits. The article proposes non-excessive utilization, sufficiency, and simplicity as general principles of environmental law, while distinguishing them from concrete legal obligations, policy directions, and ethical commitments. Non-excessive utilization requires natural resource use to remain within both reasonable human needs and the carrying and regenerative capacities of ecosystems. The complementary principles of sufficiency, simplicity, and sharing further connect sustainable consumption with environmental responsibility and social justice. Where these principles have not been recognized in positive law, they are presented as a normative framework for legal reform rather than as existing legal obligations. The article concludes that integrating these principles into environmental law and natural resource governance could strengthen sustainable development by aligning economic activity with ecological limits, intergenerational equity, and Indigenous environmental wisdom.

Keywords:

sustainable development, natural resource use, non-excessive utilization, Indigenous environmental wisdom, Lubuk Larangan, environmental ethics, environmental law, sufficiency, sustainable consumption, natural resource governance

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Imamulhadi, I., Hidayat, E. N., & Ihsan, F. W. (2026). Non-Excessive Natural Resource Use and Sustainable Development: The Indigenous Environmental Wisdom of Lubuk Larangan. Studia Ecologiae Et Bioethicae. https://doi.org/10.21697/seb.5910

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