The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has launched a geoportal to support efforts in protecting the country’s forests.
The geospatial portal, which runs on an advanced location-based analytics platform called ArcGIS, integrates forestry and environment data from relevant government departments and visualises it on a dynamic map.
It features data on forest area usage, watershed boundaries, areas for forest and land rehabilitation, and location of forest management units among others.
The platform provides decision-makers from government agencies and the public with a compelling view of the country’s forests in ways that helps them better see and understand the actual condition of the country’s natural resources.
Ruandha Agung Sugardiman, Director of Inventory and Monitoring of Forest Resources at the Ministry of Environment said the technology has enabled the agency to modernise how it manages its data by allowing them to move away from using time-consuming processes involved in creating and sharing their maps and data.
“Prior to the implementation of the Geospatial portal, data sharing was done by storing data on a USB Flash Disk and giving it to their colleagues who need it. Though effective in some way, it exposed the agency’s data to certain vulnerabilities that increased the probability of data corruption,” Mr Ruandha Agung Sugardiman.
“Once the Geospatial portal was implemented, we immediately saw a more seamless access to data across the entire organisation and a faster way to generate dynamic maps essential for decision-making.”
In addition, it also facilitated better collaboration among the agency’s departments by providing decision-makers with shared situational awareness making it easier for them to find clear solutions to environmental challenges and create better public policies.
Meanwhile, Esri Indonesia CEO A. Istamar said that since the Geospatial portal is available to the public, this allows communities, schools, and other civil society organisations to be more aware of the state of Indonesia’s forests.
“The concept of open data has been closely linked to the empowerment of citizens and facilitation of innovation in communities,” Mr Istamar said.
“By having data on our forests readily available online, citizens are provided with the ‘bigger picture’ and greater insight into the state of our forests allowing the community to come together and take action to protect our forests for generations to come.”
The geospatial portal can be accessed via this link: http://geoportal.menlhk.go.id/arcgis/home/