Forestry Minister Launches 'Jaga Rimba', a Digital System to Prevent Overlapping Permits

Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni has launched the Forestry Decision Support System (DSS) ‘Jaga Rimba’ to strengthen integrated, transparent, and data-based forest governance. The digital system is designed to enhance the monitoring of Indonesia’s forest areas. Raja Juli stated that forest area management faces increasingly complex challenges. According to him, DSS Jaga Rimba is not a new application, but part of a transformation of forestry governance through system integration, strengthening transparency and accountability, and utilising data intelligence in the decision-making process. “The idea behind this DSS is actually simple. From my experience entering the ministry over several weeks and months, there is something we must improve, something we need to fix,” Raja Juli said during the launch, via a written statement on Wednesday (17/6/2026). The Secretary-General of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) said the Ministry of Forestry has a directive map that each directorate general updates every six months. This method was deemed to have the potential for overlapping permits. “That is what then causes social conflicts on the ground, unresolved business issues, transparency problems, and later issues with law enforcement officials,” he said. DSS Jaga Rimba integrates various applications across directorates general, thematic geospatial information, and regulations that form the basis for understanding the interconnections between areas, permits, and rights and obligations holders. He stated there would be no more sectoral egos between directorates. “We talk with the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency, for example, about the issue of Other Use Areas (APL) land. How can ministries synchronise their maps if our internal basis as the main reference is not synchronised? So the idea is simple, but I think it has historical urgency to improve our performance. It is not just an application; we are trying to fix our way of thinking. We must no longer have sectoral egos; these directors general cannot become kings of their own domains who command Technical Implementation Units (UPT) independently,” he explained. Raja Juli stated that DSS Jaga Rimba is an important instrument in promoting the realisation of the Forestry One Map Policy, a single forest area map that serves as a shared reference for area management and monitoring. Currently, the system is supported by 82 Thematic Geospatial Information sets produced by 24 echelon II work units and 123 Rules and Relations that enable more comprehensive and accurate data analysis. Additionally, DSS Jaga Rimba is equipped with an Early Warning System feature that can provide automatic notifications if potential permit overlaps, application intersections, or hotspots that could trigger forest and land fires are detected. This feature is expected to accelerate data-based mitigation and follow-up measures. “Everything is now integrated, so all maps, all permits, God willing, can be monitored using one application. My simple hope is that we can provide external parties and business people with greater ease and comfort, that investment inflows become more measurable, and that we simplify our permit timelines so they do not become problems in the future. Although this application is not yet perfect, our simple intention is that we can protect the forest, guard the jungle, while also safeguarding our life as a nation,” said Raja Juli.