Madrono Cabrestante Jr.

Madrono Cabrestante Jr. serves as a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, and holds the position of Division Chief of Environmentally Critical Areas Network Monitoring and Evaluation at the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), the governing body of the Palawan Biosphere Reserve in the Philippines. He coordinates the Palawan Knowledge Platform for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, a consortium of over 30 research institutions.

His academic credentials include a Master's in Environmental Management and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering. Additional specialized training comprises a certificate in Environmental Monitoring from UNESCO's Institute for Water Education (Delft) and a fellowship at Technische Universität Dresden's Center for International Postgraduate Studies.

• Master's in Environmental Management
• BS in Agricultural Engineering
• Environmental Monitoring Certificate, UNESCO Institute for Water Education
• Fellow, Center for International Postgraduate Studies on Environmental Management (TU Dresden, 2010)

His research centers on biosphere reserve management, land use-land cover change dynamics, and coastal-marine pollution, with specific expertise in heavy metals and plastics contamination. This work integrates sustainable development frameworks with biodiversity conservation to address environmental pressures in UNESCO-designated reserves.

His recent publications reveal consistent focus on environmental monitoring in Palawan, particularly marine ecosystem assessments (2024) and biennial State of the Environment reports (2015, 2020). These demonstrate evolving methodologies in tracking pollution impacts and land-cover transitions within biosphere reserves.

Scientific recognition includes:

• Fellow at TU Dresden's Center for International Postgraduate Studies (2010)

He has directed significant international grants including Australia's DFAT-funded Marine Resources Initiative (co-implemented with Geoscience Australia and University of Sydney), the EU SwitchAsia zero-carbon resorts project, and the ADB-Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction project 9160. No formal student advisement is documented.

His operational leadership spans the Palawan Knowledge Platform consortium and the Marine Resources Initiative, facilitating cross-institutional collaboration between government, academia, and civil society for biosphere reserve management.