Methods, Jurisdictional Risk Assessment

With support from Global Forest Watch, World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF) developed the Jurisdictional Risk Assessment to explore potential applications of public data platforms to help companies, governments, and other end-users assess certain jurisdictions and their potential association with illegal deforestation. This tool can help companies and governments prioritize and strengthen their traceability and due diligence efforts. Using palm oil and Indonesia as a pilot commodity and geography, WWF developed indicators to assess potential risk to forested ecosystems and their management in Indonesia by district. The sets of indicators represent: 1) primary forests, 2) peat lands, 3) protected areas, and 4) the forest estate (specifically, production forests and limited production forests). Depending on the ecosystem or managed area type, historical rates of deforestation, fire occurrence, and incompatible zoning of land uses (particularly by oil palm concessions) were selected as ways of evaluating risk. We used datasets from Global Forest Watch and associated websites, augmented by additional external sources. Download the PDF for more details on the JRA’s methodology.