Beyond the Forest City: The Paradox of Sustainability and Maritime Dispossession in the Development of the Capital City

The development of Indonesia's new capital, Nusantara (IKN), in East Kalimantan is promoted as a "smart, green, and sustainable" forest city.However, this study reveals that the state's sustainability paradigm is technocratic and land-centric, neglecting the socio-ecological dynamics of coastal communities.Using policy ethnography and lifeworld phenomenology approach, the research explores the lived experiences of traditional fishers in Samboja, Balikpapan Bay, and Penajam Paser Utara amid spatial transformations caused by the IKN project.Findings indicate that the development has disrupted maritime livelihoods through the loss of fishing grounds, mangrove degradation, and socio-economic marginalization-constituting a new form of enclosure of the commons.Nevertheless, coastal communities respond with adaptive and resistant practices grounded in local ecological knowledge, collective labor at sea, and participatory mapping, representing forms of bottom-up sustainability.The study concludes that genuine sustainability does not emerge from state policy alone but from the social-ecological practices of coastal communities that sustain the balance between sea, space, and life.This research contributes to spatial political discourse by positioning maritime society as an active agent of ecological justice.