24-05-2025
New technology revolutionizes the way countries are fighting deforestation: 'The better the chances of taking preventive action'
A forest monitoring platform, Ground (GTID), has launched in Indonesia to fight deforestation by making it easier to track the legality of commodities like palm oil, timber, and other forest-risk products.
This comes at a time when Indonesia is reportedly ramping up its efforts to mitigate forest-risk products as the European Union Deforestation Regulation is set to be enforced at the end of the year.
The tool will "make it easier to track where supply chain irregularities begin, especially in remote or hard-to-access areas," according to Mongabay.
Denny Bhatara, the senior campaigner at Kaoem Telapak, explained that "many incidents occur that we might not be aware of due to distance or a lack of reporting mechanisms. Through GTID, we gather all field-based documentation and compile it into a unified system."
The data is then presented in a "bottom-up method," ensuring that there's real-time, verifiable data collection that helps authorities decide whether the deforestation is unlawful and act before environmental damage occurs.
"Sometimes, by the time we receive information from remote areas, the damage has already become massive and widespread," Bhatara told Mongabay. "[So] the faster we can share information, the better the chances of taking preventative action."
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that 10 million hectares of the forest are subject to deforestation every year. One report has showcased that oil palm plantations have driven extensive deforestation in Indonesia alone for the past two decades. Three million hectares of Indonesia's forest have suffered from the extraction of these commodities.
Deforestation is responsible for ecosystem annihilation, a reduction of emission captures to mitigate planet-harming pollution, food insecurity, among several other harms to human communities. In tracking down the cause of significant deforestation through Indonesia's tool, the ability to bar illegal and environmentally damaging trade grows.
As Diah Suradiredja, the coordinator of the national dashboard, put it for Mongabay, "GTID is crucial for verification to prevent conflict-ridden products from being exported."
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