Borobudur Law and Society Journal

Wonosobo Regency faces waste, damage from quarrying, loss of green space and conversion of protected areas. Its Regional Regulation No 4 of 2022 on Environmental Protection and Management is meant to make the Regency clean, healthy and sustainable. This article asks what direction of legal policy the Regulation expresses and what political configuration produced it, using Mahfud MD’s theory that a democratic configuration yields a responsive legal product. It is normative legal research with statutory and historical approaches, applied to the Regulation, the national environmental statutes, the 2018 academic paper and the factions’ positions in the regional council; it uses no deliberation records or interviews. The findings are that the Regulation follows the structure of Law No 32 of 2009 and adds little that is specific to Wonosobo, and that, as the provisions are described, it is silent on waste, quarrying, sanctions and enforcement. Approval by seven of eight factions, one with a special note, shows consensus but does not prove a democratic configuration. The Regulation is therefore best called partly responsive: its rights and participation provisions respond to the community, but its content leaves enforcement to executive discretion. The article recommends an implementation evaluation and revision of the enforcement provisions.