Indonesia to launch forest mapping tool in 2021

Indonesia will launch a forest mapping tool in 2021 for its Riau province, in efforts to tackle its slash-and-burn practices. Riau One Map, led by the World Research Institute (WRI) for Indonesia - a global research organisation - will pool forestry data to the public on a single map to encourage responsible land-use.

The platform will draw out land borders and redistribution zones in the province to solve conflict between the private sector and government when burning happens on unregistered lands, said Nirarta Samadhi, Director for WRI Indonesia, the Jakarta Globe reports. Currently, government agencies have overlapping maps with various datasets, he added.

"We must open up a communication platform which promotes transparency. This will help reduce conflict and identify the problems faced by each stakeholder," Riau was chosen because of its high number of land disputes and deforestation cases, compared to other provinces, the report continued.

WRI is also looking to expand the One Map project to South Sumatra and Papua by 2018, it writes. Indonesia’s One Map initiative was introduced by the previous government to incorporate spatial data, tenure and land use into a single map to overcome overlapping land permits and land disputes.