Indonesia threatens prison terms for downloading its forest maps without permission

Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry is warning that anyone who downloads data from its public forest-mapping platform without written permission will be prosecuted under an internet law that carries up to nine years in prison.

For about a month, a notice on the platform, known as SIGAP, has said the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions Law carries penalties of up to nine years in prison or a fine of up to 3 billion rupiah ($170,000). Researchers use SIGAP to view government data on deforestation, fire hotspots and protected-forest zoning.

Doni Prabowo, the ministry's head of forest monitoring and geospatial information, said the rules cover only raw data in shapefile format, which he said had been manipulated and illegally sold. Users can still download PDF maps, he said, and universities and government institutions can apply for shapefiles, but nongovernmental organizations cannot.

Conservationists say the move will hamper efforts to catch illegal clearing. "It's narrowing the space for us to get public data," said Lukmanul Hakim, a geographic information system analyst at the conservation group HAkA in Aceh province. Andreas Harsono, a Jakarta-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, said such permits are slow to obtain, if they are approved at all.

Herlambang Wiratraman, a constitutional law professor at Gadjah Mada University, said the public has a right to the data under Indonesia's 2008 Public Information Disclosure Act. "Access to public information is a human right," he said.

This brief is based on reporting by Dyna Rochmyaningsih and Philip Jacobson, published Oct. 6, 2026, in Mongabay. Read the original: https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-threatens-prison-time-for-unauthorized-downloads-of-forest-data/