Indonesia strengthens forest monitoring with new tool to meet EU deforestation law

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s efforts to ensure its commodity exports are free of deforestation are ramping up as the European Union Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, nears enforcement.

One of the biggest challenges in meeting EUDR standards is traceability. To meet the regulation’s strict requirements, Indonesia is stepping up efforts to provide verifiable, real-time data that prove the legality and sustainability of commodities like palm oil, timber, and other forest-risk products.

A new forest monitoring platform, Ground Truthed.id (GTID), aims to support this by documenting violations at the source — such as illegal oil palm plantations in forest zones, timber sourced from unlicensed concessions, and land conflicts — to complement satellite monitoring.

This will make it easier to track where supply chain irregularities begin, especially in remote or hard-to access areas, said Denny Bhatara, a senior campaigner at Kaoem Telapak, the environmental NGO behind GTID.

“Many incidents occur that we might not be aware of due to distance or a lack of reporting mechanisms,” he said. “Through GTID, we gather all field-based documentation and compile it into a unified system.”

What sets GTID apart, Denny said, is its focus on collecting real-time, verifiable geolocation-based evidence of environmental crimes from the ground up, unlike other platforms like Global Forest Watch (GFW), which start with satellite imagery before ground verification.

This bottom-up method ensures the data reflect real-world conditions rather than just remote-sensing estimates, he said. This allows authorities to confirm whether deforestation is unlawful and, crucially, to act before irreversible environmental damage occurs, Denny said.

“Sometimes, by the time we receive information from remote areas, the damage has already become massive and widespread,” he said. “[So] the faster we can share information, the better the chances of taking preventive action.”

GTID is currently available via web and Android apps for both online and offline data collection.

Collaboration

With the world’s third largest tropical rainforests — after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo — monitoring Indonesia’s forests is a colossal task.

That’s why GTID emphasizes collaboration between Indigenous peoples and local communities, civil society organizations, and stakeholders like law enforcement, Denny said.

“Since Kaoem Telapak is a campaign organization with an extensive monitoring network across Indonesia, we see great potential for collaboration in amplifying reports of destruction occurring on the ground,” he said.

To ensure accuracy, all field data are verified by a Kaoem Telapak team before publication.

“There is usually a delay of several months after the field data is collected, as additional efforts are made to verify and supplement this information. This includes desk research and OSINT [open-source intelligence] to determine whether the field data can be further pursued,” said Kaoem Telapak executive director Mardi Minangsari.

GTID’s verification process ensures the data are not only accurate but legally actionable, she said.

“For instance, if illegal logging is found, it could lead to various reports. If the involved company holds an SVLK [certificate of timber legality], a report will be filed,” Mardi said. “If the findings indicate a potential criminal offense, we can report them to law enforcement. Thus, the field data we collect is used to build cases for the relevant authorities.”

Some incidents may also be part of broader, interconnected crimes. For example, if illegal logged land is later converted into commodity plantations, further investigations can connect the dots — a process that can be supported by other platform users accessing the published data.

“All collected documentation can be accessed by other users, allowing for collaborative analysis and connections between events,” Denny said. “GTID aims to establish strong evidence rather than just speculation.”

Given the sensitive nature of the data, GTID prioritizes data security and privacy. Instead of personal identifiers, users are assigned anonymous Reporter ID numbers, Denny said. The platform also offers tiered access to control who sees what data.

EUDR

Kaoem Telapak says it hopes that GTID’s bottom-up approach can assist Indonesian producers in complying with the EUDR, a law that aims to curb deforestation by banning imports into the European Union of seven commodities — soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and beef — linked to deforestation and illegality.

The EUDR requires producers and traders to provide detailed evidence, including precise geolocation data, proving their products haven’t come from land deforested since 2020.

Indonesia, as the world’s largest palm oil producer and also a major exporter of timber, coffee, cocoa and rubber, Indonesia stands to be significantly affected by the EUDR. The government is working to ensure its producers and traders are ready to meet the regulation by its implementation date of Dec. 30, 2025.

To support compliance, the Indonesian government is also developing a supply chain traceability system, an online dashboard launching this year that will compile and synchronize data and maps across commodities like palm oil, coffee, cocoa and rubber at every stage of the supply chain.

Diah Suradiredja, coordinator of the national dashboard, said the platform goes beyond data collection, functioning also as a verification and integration system. It ensures that exported commodities can be verified and accounted for when they reach destination countries and competent authorities, she said.

This is where GTID can contribute, Diah added, by acting as an independent watchdog to help verify ground-level violations.

“GTID is crucial for verification to prevent conflict-ridden products from being exported,” she said.

Banner image: Illegal logging observed in Gunung Palung National Park, Indonesian Borneo. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

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Hans Nicholas Jong Editor

This story first appeared on Mongabay

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