The Jurisdictional Risk Assessment (JRA) is a tool to help end-users better understand the extent and rate of past deforestation and deforestation activities occurring within certain political jurisdictions. The purpose of this pilot study was to see if we could develop key performance indicators using historical data around illegal deforestation utilizing public data platforms such as Global Forest Watch. The JRA is based on a set of key assessment indicators, designed to capture deforestation resulting from activities that are not permitted (e.g., use of fire), or that takes place where certain laws and policies prohibit deforestation or conversion – such as in primary forests, protected areas, peatland, and certain sections of the Forest Estate. The Indonesia districts for the islands of Sumatra, and the Indonesian portion of Borneo and Papua, were chosen for this pilot study due to their relation to past, current, and potential palm oil production.
We encourage you to not only read the report but to dig in to the data provided in the spreadsheet (summarized data can be found on tab 2, titled “Aggregated Risk Levels”). This effort aims to help inform due diligence efforts and increase the understanding of supply chains from an illegal deforestation perspective. While the tool does not offer a perfect or comprehensive representation of risk – with several important limitations further detailed in the report – it may provide insights to inform future initiatives and actions focused on jurisdictional and landscape levels.
The WWF-Jurisdictional Risk Assessment Database can be accessed here (xls).
