Jamal is a an ecologist by training who focuses on tropical forest conservation and restoration by sustaining agriculture that has been a major driver to the deforestation in the Southeast Asia. Jamal is currently a teaching staff at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. Realising that forest conservation issue is complex, Jamal tries to tackle this issue and close the gaps through interdisciplinary approach, including governance and social approaches. Jamal has been appointed as a Fellow at the Project on Nature and Governance, UC Los Angeles to work on a project that identifies the cross-stakeholders' barriers and opportunities in implementing sustainable oil palm plantation. Previously, Jamal's was involved as a researcher at RCCC UI on the Trade HUB project for systematic review of evidence for biodiversity and agriculture production in tropical forest landscape. In addition, Jamal is currently collaborating with Cambridge University and IPB University on a project that identifies options for restoring river systems in smallholder and industrial oil palm plantations by conducting socio-ecological surveys.

Jamal obtained his bachelor in Biology from Gadjah Mada University. Jamal has two master degrees, MEnvSc from Hokkaido University as an INPEX Scholar and MBA from Quantic. Jamal's PhD project at Oxford University explored the tropical agroecosystem functions under changing climate and land-use, which lay a theoretical foundation for agricultural landscape management.