We recently spoke with Teguh Pambudi, Indonesia Lead Auditor and GIS Specialist at DoubleHelix, to learn more about his role and how technology is shaping the future of supply chain verification in Indonesia.
Q: Where are you based in Indonesia, and how long have you been part of the DoubleHelix team?
I’m based in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. I have been with DoubleHelix for 13 years since December 2013.
Q: You have a dual role as Lead Auditor and GIS Specialist – can you explain what each side of that involves day to day?
As a Lead Auditor, I specialise in PEFC CoC, GGL Biomass, and ISO standards, helping organisations ensure their products are legally sourced and sustainably managed. My current focus also includes advancing GIS capabilities for EUDR compliance, specifically in verifying harvest unit coordinates and map-based traceability.
Q: What does a typical audit look like for you on the ground in Indonesia – from preparation through to completion?
A typical audit starts with planning, which involves establishing the scope and schedule for the fieldwork. This is followed by a desk-based review, where I conduct a preliminary review of the client’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) and supply chain documentation.
Next comes risk assessment. For programs like Nature’s Barcode, this involves assessing the risk of the timber supply chain based on species and origin. Then it’s on-site inspection, where I visit primary and secondary sawmills or plantations to verify that the Chain of Custody (CoC) system is physically in place. The audit process then moves into evaluation and reporting, where I prepare a comprehensive audit report.
Q: How does GIS technology change the way you approach supply chain work compared to more traditional methods?
GIS allows for the monitoring of land development and field progress over time. By reading maps and interpreting spatial data, you can see changes in forest cover or plantation growth that might not be obvious during a single walk-through. This is something that can’t be seen through traditional approaches alone.
Q: Indonesia is one of the world’s most important countries for timber and agri-commodities – what makes auditing here particularly complex or unique?
Several factors make auditing in Indonesia complex. One challenge is the island logistics. Moving goods across thousands of islands makes it difficult to track every step of the supply chain, increasing the risk of mixing legal and illegal materials at busy ports. Much of the supply also comes from millions of independent farmers instead of large companies. Many of them don’t have digital maps, so verifying their exact land location requires extra effort.
We also deal with double regulations. We must follow strict Indonesian laws, such as SVLK, while also meeting global standards like PEFC and FSC. The new requirements under the EUDR now require more than just paperwork. We have to utilise GPS coordinates and map reading to prove that products did not come from deforested areas.
Indonesia also has many different timber species. One trade name can have many scientific names, and different islands can use different scientific names for similar materials. For example, Meranti (Shorea) includes many species, and the same species can have different wood characteristics depending on soil, climate, and micro ecosystems. With so many wood types, the risk of substitution increases.
And of course, there is also the issue of climate change. Indonesia has a large forest area, so there is increasing pressure to maintain sustainability. Balancing economic, social, and environmental needs is not easy and requires effort from all parties.
Q: How do your two areas of expertise – auditing and GIS – complement each other?
In forestry, there is still a clear gap between advanced spatial technology and practical CoC (Chain of Custody) auditing systems. While GIS and drone technology have advanced significantly, their integration into the auditing sector remains underutilised. Currently, GIS verification and CoC system audits often operate separately, meaning spatial data like maps and coordinates are not yet well correlated with administrative data and documents in a single audit stream.
Drone utilisation is also still limited. At the moment, drones are mainly used in industrial forest plantations and large estates for monitoring crop health, rather than as a tool for timber legality verification. Implementing drone technology alongside GIS would significantly improve field accuracy, especially for mapping harvest units where traditional paper-based methods are prone to error.
Most monitoring in Indonesia still relies heavily on satellite imagery, which can be limited by cloud cover and lower resolution, compared to the high-precision “ground-truthing” that drones can provide. For regulations like the EUDR, integrating GIS with on-site audit systems is becoming a necessity. The current focus is on developing skills in reading maps and coordinating harvest units to meet these new regulatory demands, even if full-scale spatial data analysis isn’t the primary focus yet.
Q: What changes or trends are you noticing in Indonesian supply chains at the moment?
Supply chains are shifting in several ways. There’s a move from natural to community forests, where industries are reducing the use of expensive natural wood like Meranti to cut costs. Instead, they’re using “kayu rakyat” (community-grown wood) for core structures and saving natural wood for aesthetic veneers.
There have also been technological breakthroughs in wood engineering and mechanics. Smaller, fast-growing tropical species can now be used for high-end manufacturing, and modern machinery makes it possible to process alternative species that were previously ignored. Engineered wood is also becoming dominant. Plywood, MDF, and HDF, along with advanced finger-jointing, can create composite products with the strength of solid wood now.
But the biggest challenge is still sustainability. Because “kayu rakyat” comes from thousands of small private plots, coordinating these farmers into a unified and sustainable management system is difficult. All in all, Indonesia is moving toward high-tech, cost-effective engineered wood, but the challenge is still verifying sustainability for thousands of small-scale farmers.
Q: What does it mean to you personally to be working on sustainable sourcing in a country as ecologically significant as Indonesia?
Working on sustainable sourcing in Indonesia is a profound responsibility because this country is one of the world’s most vital “lungs.” Personally, it means being at the intersection of economic development and environmental preservation. It’s about ensuring that the timber and biomass industries, which support millions of livelihoods, can operate without sacrificing the biodiversity that makes Indonesia unique.
By using tools like GIS and rigorous auditing systems, I’m helping to build a bridge between local farmers and the global market. It’s very fulfilling to see how technology can empower smallholders to prove their legality, ensuring that Indonesian products are respected worldwide for being both high-quality and responsibly sourced.
Q: What intrigues you about a career that combines fieldwork with data and mapping?
Integrating these technologies into a unified system marks a shift toward what I call “auditing level,” where the traditional physical and administrative boundaries of the industry are dismantled. By combining GIS and drone technology, we can achieve a digital reality that allows for “all-weather” auditing, enabling verification of harvest units without the delays caused by extreme roads, weather conditions, or multi-day treks through dense jungle.
This moves us away from subjective manual inspections toward a model with superior accuracy, where aerial and spatial data offer more validity than human observation can. For factory-level Chain of Custody (CoC) audits, a digital transformation like this replaces mountains of paperwork with streamlined mapping systems, which accelerate the backtracking process, eliminating errors and increasing transparency.
Q: Outside of work, what keeps you busy?
Beyond my professional life, my primary focus is my family. I dedicate myself to understanding and communicating with my child, who is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This has led me to a deep study of ASD and ADHD, so I can provide the best support and environment at home.
In addition to family life, I stay active in my local community and enjoy participating in neighbourhood social activities. When I have spare time, I enjoy going back to my roots in aeromodelling by flying drones.
Q: What’s one thing about Indonesia – its landscapes, culture, or people – that you wish more people understood?
Coming from a family of teachers in a small village in Central Java, I was raised with a deep sense of national identity. Indonesia is an extraordinary nation. While I acknowledge its complexities and systemic challenges, my loyalty to the country is absolute. We have so much natural beauty, and a culture composed of hundreds of unique traditions and customs. It is a special place, and I focus on what I can do to personally contribute to the nation.