Governing Through Difference: Legal Pluralism and Conservation Justice in Lamalera

Conservation policies often criminalize indigenous practices when state and global norms disregard local cosmologies. This study examines Lamalera, an indigenous whaling community in Indonesia, whose ancestral system Ola Nuâng Lefa Nué , a moral-ecological law regulating whale harvests, conflicts with national bans and international biodiversity regimes. The research identifies a normative and epistemic gap between technocratic conservation and customary law rooted in reciprocity and restraint. Using a critical qualitative case study with fieldwork (2023–2025), interviews, and legal hermeneutics, it analyzes how customary, Church, and state laws intersect within unequal power structures. Findings reveal that Indonesia’s conservation law embodies discriminatory legal pluralism. It recognizes custom only under state control. Yet Lamalera’s living law fulfills principles of sustainable commons governance. The study proposes inclusive legal mediation: co-management, recognition, and FPIC, to reconcile conservation and indigenous rights, showing that governing through difference offers a more just and sustainable path for marine biodiversity conservation.