Climate Justice and Small Islands: An Anthropological Perspective on the Governance of Sain Island, North Maluku, Indonesia

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_44How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Climate justice; political ecology; local knowledge; small islands; sustainable governance

Abstract

This study examines the application of climate justice discourse in the governance of Sain Island, Central Halmahera, North Maluku, Indonesia, through a political-ecology and anthropological lens using thematic analysis. The research aims to understand how power, knowledge, and moral values shape small-island governance amid the climate crisis. Data were collected through participant observation, ethnographic interviews with Umyal Villager, and an analysis of Sain Island Management Roadmap. Thematic analysis identified three core themes: (1) dominance of technocratic discourses in conservation and tourism policies that reduce climate justice to administrative efficiency; (2) local knowledge and ecological spirituality that frame the sea as a living entity endowed with moral and ethical value—an ethic of care; and (3) power negotiation and epistemic inequality, where communities respond to marginalization through symbolic and adaptive strategies. The findings reveal that for coastal communities, climate justice extends beyond resource distribution—it is a moral relationship among humans, nature, and the spiritual guardians of the sea. Then the equitable small-island governance must be grounded in a dialogue between scientific and local epistemologies and must recognize spiritual and social values as the foundation of ecological justice.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Wahyu Chandra
AU  - Munsi Lampe
AU  - Yahya
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - Climate Justice and Small Islands: An Anthropological Perspective on the Governance of Sain Island, North Maluku, Indonesia
BT  - Proceedings of the World Conference on Governance and Social Sciences 2025 (WCGSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 656
EP  - 668
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_44
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_44
ID  - Chandra2026
ER  -