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Paper short abstract

This paper reframes sustainability as a lived spiritual practice in Inner Baduy cosmology. By positioning Prophet Adam as an ecological moral archetype, it reveals a paradox where strong environmental ethics generate socio-economic vulnerability, thereby advancing Indigenous sustainability discourse

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the environmental teachings of Sunda Wiwitan as practiced by the Inner Baduy Indigenous community, situating these teachings within the cosmological narrative of Nabi Adam as the primordial guardian of the relationship between humans and nature. Central to Inner Baduy environmental ethics are prohibitive principles such as “mountains should not be shattered,” “valley should not be wrecked,” and “length cannot be cut off” which frame nature as a living moral order rather than a resource to be exploited. These teachings construct a spiritual ecology that prioritizes restraint, harmony, and continuity of creation. However, this paper argues that the very ethical commitments that sustain environmental integrity simultaneously generate structural vulnerability. The Inner Baduy’s deliberate isolation from modern agricultural technologies, including the strict prohibition on chemical inputs, has contributed to recurring crop failures and increasing food insecurity. This condition reveals a paradox of Indigenous sustainability that environmental preservation is achieved at the cost of socio-economic resilience. Using a qualitative socio-legal and ethnographic approach, this study contextualizes Inner Baduy narratives within broader debates on sustainability, Indigenous knowledge systems, and environmental ethics. The novelty of this research lies in reframing sustainability not as a purely technical or policy-driven concept, but as a lived spiritual practice that entails ethical sacrifice and risk. By foregrounding Prophet Adam as an ecological moral archetype, the paper contributes to narrative-based environmental studies and Indigenous sustainability discourse, highlighting the need for more culturally sensitive sustainability frameworks that reconcile spiritual ecology with adaptive resilience.