Local Wisdom as A Pillar of Sustainable Environmental Policy: an Environmental Governance Perspective

Purpose: This paper examines local wisdom as a fundamental component in the thinking and implementation of sustainable environmental policy under the broader process of environmental governance. It critiques the dominance of purely technological and top-down approaches, and instead advances hybrid, participatory, and culture-sensitive models. Subjects and Methods: The study adopts a quantitative correlational research design to examine the statistical relationship between community observation of traditional ecological practices and outlooks on environmental management in selected destinations in Indonesia. A total of 375 respondents were engaged across culturally diverse regions of Bali, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara. Using structured Likert-scale questionnaires, the survey measured three central dimensions of local wisdom: ritual practices, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and customary penalties, along with their relationship to governance outcomes. Results: The results indicate that there is a close and positive correlation between the strength of local wisdom and the effectiveness of environmental governance. Multiple regression analysis further demonstrates that these three elements of local wisdom maintain a statistically significant relationship with governance performance, explaining 53.6% of the observed variance. These findings confirm that conventional environmental behaviors, embedded in culture and tradition, are dynamic and community-based modes of governance that enhance compliance, legitimacy, and conservation effectiveness. Conclusions: The study contributes to management and public policy literature by providing empirical evidence on the integration of local knowledge systems into formal governance frameworks. By reframing communities as co-governors rather than passive beneficiaries, the paper highlights the strategic importance of local wisdom as a sustainability resource that strengthens policy innovation, institutional performance, and long-term ecological resilience.