KONSTITUSIONALISME BERKELANJUTAN UNTUK RAJA AMPAT: TATA KELOLA LAUT, HILIRISASI, DAN EKOLOGI SATELIT DIGITAL 2025

Abstract

Raja Ampat (The Four Kings Archipelago) is one of the most sensitive and biodiverse marine regions in the world, yet its governance faces persistent challenges: overlapping permits, weak enforcement, and fragmented authority between the central and regional governments. From a Constitutional Law perspective, these issues highlight the difficulty of ensuring that the Constitution effectively governs the management of strategic natural resources. The 1945 Constitution provides clear normative foundations. The Fourth Paragraph of the Preamble obliges the state to protect all Indonesians; Article 33(3) affirms that natural resources are controlled by the state for the people’s prosperity; and Article 18B(2) recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples. This study assesses whether licensing practices, mining and marine oversight, and indigenous recognition reflect the principle of constitutional stewardship, the constitutional responsibility of the state to safeguard strategic ecosystems for future generations. Using a normative legal approach enriched with sociological analysis, this research finds that the core problem is not regulatory insufficiency but weak coordination, inconsistent enforcement, and inadequate inclusion of indigenous communities as constitutional subjects. The study proposes a strengthened governance model through central–local regulatory harmonization, national data-driven monitoring standards, and more operational protection of indigenous rights. The research concludes that enhancing constitutional governance in Raja Ampat is essential to fulfilling the mandate of the 1945 Constitution and preserving one of the planet’s most important marine biodiversity zones. The article advances the concept of Ecological Constitutional Gatekeeping, emphasizing that all resource extraction and downstreaming policies must adhere to ecological limits mandated by the principle of constitutional stewardship.