Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Valuation, Institutions, and Policy in Southeast Asia

Dr. Nancy Olewiler was Director of Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) School of Public Policy since its founding in 2003 until September 2014. She has a PhD in Economics from the University of British Columbia. Prior to coming to the Economics department at SFU in 1990, she was an Associate Professor of Economics at Queen’s University in Ontario. Dr. Olewiler has held visiting positions at the University of Colorado, University of California, Berkeley, and University of New South Wales. She was Chair of SFU’s Economics department from 1995 to 2000. Dr. Olewiler has held a number of positions serving many communities, locally and internationally. These include being a member the Board of Directors of BC Hydro from 2001 to 2010 and TransLink from 2008 to 2013 (where she served as its Chair from 2010 to 2013). She is a member of the National Statistics Council and Chairs the Macroeconomic Accounts Advisory Committee for Statistics Canada. Her areas of research include natural resource and environmental economics and policy, the impact of environmental regulation on the economy, and environmental tax policy. She has published in academic journals, edited books, has written two widely used textbooks, and produced numerous reports for the Canadian federal and provincial governments on a wide range of environmental and natural resource issues. From 1990 to 1995 she was Managing Editor of Canadian Public Policy, Canada’s leading public policy journal. Dr. Olewiler is a research mentor to the Environment and Economy Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) and the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Economy Program (LACEEP).

Dr. Herminia Francisco is the Director of the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA). The Program plays an important role in developing researchers’ capacity to produce high quality, policy relevant studies to support improved environmental management in Southeast Asia. EEPSEA receives funding support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). It has been administered by WorldFish since November 20012. Prior to taking the post as Director of EEPSEA, Dr. Francisco was stationed in Cambodia for two years where she managed the capacity-building training and research grant activities for select institutions in Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam. Dr. Francisco also taught for several years at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños and was also involved in providing consultancy services to several international organizations before joining EEPSEA. Her written work covers topics such as economics of soil erosion and conservation, pricing of environmental services, climate change adaptation, and institutional issues governing the management of common pool resources.

Dr. Alice Joan G. Ferrer is a Professor of Economics at the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV). She is also currently the Executive Director of the Western Visayas Health Research and Development Consortium. Her fields of specialization include fisheries social science, environmental and pollution economics, policy analysis, population economics, and health economics. She has a PhD in Economics from the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics. Dr. Ferrer has been involved in various local and international research projects. Currently her research involvement include serving: as project leader in an EEPSEA-funded study on the Economics, Social Acceptability and Distributional Impacts of Mariculture in the Philippines; as co-principal investigator in a study on middlemen as crucial social-ecological linkages for achieving sustainable small-scale fisheries; and as team leader of the social analysis component of the project Coastal Area Capability Enhancement in Southeast Asia, a collaborative project of UPV, the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) in Japan. She is also a member of the design team of the WorldFish-led Consortium Research Program on Aquatic Agriculture Systems in the Philippines. Dr. Ferrer has published various journal articles and has recently launched a book on disused brackish water fishponds and mangrove areas rehabilitation.