Indigenous Women’s Wisdom in Sustainable Natural Resource Management: A Participatory Environmental Justice Perspective

Indah Nur Shanty Saleh (Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)
Tri Rusti Maydrawati (Universitas Hang Tuah)
Ida Madieha Abdul Ghani Azmi (International Islamic University Malaysia)

Administrative and Environmental Law Review
Vol 7 No 2 (2026)

Sustainable natural resource management has yet to adequately recognize and integrate indigenous women’s traditional knowledge. This article examines its legal status, the challenges to its recognition, and the legal reforms needed to strengthen it from a participatory environmental justice perspective. Using normative legal research with statutory, conceptual, and participatory environmental justice approaches, the study finds that indigenous women’s traditional knowledge is vital to sustainable natural resource management but remains constrained by limited legal recognition, structural and patriarchal biases, and inadequate integration into governance frameworks. The study recommends strengthening legal recognition, reconstructing gender-inclusive laws, and integrating indigenous women’s traditional knowledge into sustainable natural resource management frameworks to advance participatory environmental justice.