Indonesia, one of the most biodiverse nations on Earth, appears to be gearing up to renew official estimates of its remaining wildlife populations, following nearly two decades without official updates on the status of some key species. With a new forestry minister, Raja Juli Antoni, appointed in October 2024 under President Prabowo Subianto, scientists say they hope the initiatives signal a more open and transparent approach to conservation in the country. A change in tone would be a welcome shift from the previous forestry administration, led by Siti Nurbaya Bakar, whose era was marked with data censorship and a tight grip over conservation organizations. On Jan. 31, dozens of national park managers, heads of provincial conservation offices, NGO workers, and academics across the country joined an online meeting organized by the Ministry of Forestry’s conservation directorate-general. At the meeting, the director-general, Satyawan Pudyatmoko, urged the attendees to “work together” to initiate wildlife population surveys and conduct the latest population and habitat viability analyses (PHVA) for some iconic species. Both efforts, he said, are “the current priorities of Indonesia’s conservation.” “Oftentimes, conservation actions that are not based in science, only common sense, are not effective and wastes of money,” said Satyawan, a conservation scientist himself, who has held his current role since 2023. Population surveys provide the raw data used for PHVA computer modeling, which aims to assess how certain species could survive under multiple scenarios in the future. This information, in turn, is crucial in developing species conservation strategies and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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