Dr Benjamin Gonzales

Vice President for Research and Development and Extension

Western Philippines University, Philippines

Dr. Benjamin Gonzales is a fisheries technologist and fish biodiversity by academic background with an expanded interest in fisheries and coastal resource management. Behind him is a 35-year fisheries job experience. He works  and published papers on fishing gears, fish biology, fish ecology, fish population genetics, fish taxonomy, and topics on different components of coastal and fisheries management. He works intermittently on bay and small islands biodiversity/resource management in connection with planning and sustainable utilization of resources. He started working in 1980 as aide in a shipyard and a tuna fisher, before shifting to coastal/fisheries management career in 1989. Dr. Gonzales was a Fishery Industry Specialist in a World Bank Project between 1982 and 1987, the objective of which was to establish the Fishery School in Palawan. He has a four-year experience in a co-management project in partnership with the Marine Institute International of the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He was engaged as Coastal and Fisheries Management Adviser and Integrated Coastal Resource Management (ICRM) Specialist in an ADB and JBIC funded Philippine Bureau of Fisheries-FRM Project for six years (2000-2006) and as ICRM Specialist cum Deputy Team Leader of ADB and GEF funded ICRM Project of the Dept. of Environment Natural Resources for 2 years (2010-2012). Dr. Gonzales was a member of the End-of-Project Evaluation Team of USAID funded Eco-Gov Project in early 2011 as the Integrated Coastal and Fisheries Resource Management Specialist who looked into the Ridge to Reef aspects of the project. He served intermittently as the CRM and Enterprise Development Specialist in the Project Design of FISHCoRAL Project of IFAD-UN, 2012-2013. He was the on-call Coastal Marine Resource Management Specialist of the recently concluded CTI-Southeast Asia Project (ADB, GEF) in three countries: Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia. His recent and current works are on coral rehabilitation, coastal resource/habitats assessments, reproductive biology of fishes, and MPAs cum livelihood for local fishers.