Assessing Indonesia’s Green Sukuk Projects Through the Framework of Fiqh al-Bi’ah

Abstract

Indonesia's sovereign green sukuk program has been evaluated almost exclusively through technical and regulatory criteria derived from secular sustainable finance standards. The normative dimension of Islamic environmental jurisprudence, known as fiqh al-bī'ah, has been structurally absent from this evaluative process. This study addresses that gap by constructing and applying the first operationalized fiqh al-bī'ah evaluation framework for green sukuk projects. Grounded in a qualitative normative-empirical research design, the study derives a three-dimensional analytical framework (Environmental Impact, Ecological Risk, and Public Benefit) from five core principles: ḥifẓ al-bī'ah, la ḍarar wa la ḍirar, man' al-fasad fī al-arḍ, man' al-israf, and maṣlaḥah 'ammah. The framework is applied to fifteen FY2024 project groups documented in Indonesia's Green Sukuk Allocation and Impact Report 2025 through a five-step structured evaluation procedure and a four-category typology: Direct Ecological Conformity, Indirect Conformity, Conditional Conformity, and Problematic Conformity. Results indicate that 66.7 percent of projects achieve Direct Ecological Conformity, 26.7 percent Indirect Conformity, and 6.7 percent Conditional Conformity with no project classified as Problematic. The study identifies three structural tensions: normative displacement, prospective greenwashing vulnerability, and competing ecological and social interests (taʿaruḍ al-maṣaliḥ) in ecologically sensitive adaptation infrastructure. It contributes a replicable Islamic environmental governance instrument and advances fiqh al-bī'ah as an applied extension of maqaṣid al-Sharī'ah with direct governance implications for Sharia supervisory boards, government issuers, and the Islamic ESG ecosystem.