Don-2

Jose Don De Alban

Academic Qualifications

M.Sc. in Geomatics Engineering (Major in Remote Sensing), University of the Philippines Diliman

B.Sc. in Geodetic Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman

Research areas

Land change; remote sensing; conservation; political ecology; sustainability; Southeast Asia

Research interests

Don is an engineer, geographer, and conservationist interested in understanding land change as coupled human and natural systems, with an aim to develop solutions to address sustainability challenges in Southeast Asia.

Biography

Don has 20 years of experience specialising in land change science, remote sensing, and geospatial modelling; forest conservation and protected area management; and programme management, project development, monitoring, and evaluation.

He is currently a researcher at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, working on projects applying remote sensing and geospatial technologies and techniques for forest measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (M & MRV) and for nature-based solutions to climate change. Before joining the Centre (2016–mid-2021), he was a researcher at the Applied Plant Ecology Lab at NUS, studying the processes and impacts—both biophysical and socio-economic-political—of the profound agricultural transformations of tropical forest landscapes in Southeast Asia.

Prior to joining academia (2000­–2015), Don was a conservation practitioner-scientist and worked with international, national, and local conservation organisations including Fauna & Flora International, Foundation for the Philippine Environment, and Haribon Foundation.

He is a member of the Global Land Programme, the Biodiversity Conservation Society of the Philippines, the Philippine Geographical Society, and a former science team member of the ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative.

Selected publications

  1. De Alban JDT*, BPI Leong*, R Venegas-Li, GM Connette, J Jamaludin, KT Latt, P Oswald, C Reeder, & EL Webb. (2021). Conservation beyond the existing protected area network is required to improve species and habitat representation in a global biodiversity hotspot. Biological Conservation, 257, 109105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109105. *Equal contribution
  2. Verma A, D Schmidt-Vogt, JDT De Alban, CL Lim, & EL Webb. (2021). Drivers and mechanisms of forest change in the Himalayas. Global Environmental Change, 68, 102244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102244.
  3. Pang SEH, JDT De Alban, & EL Webb. (2021). Effects of climate change and land cover on the distributions of a critical tree family in the Philippines. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 276. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79491-9.
  4. De Alban JDT, J Jamaludin, DDW Wong, MM Than, & EL Webb. (2020). Improved estimates of mangrove cover and change reveal catastrophic deforestation in Myanmar. Environmental Research Letters, 15(3), 034034. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab666d.
  5. Prescott GW, AC Maung, Z Aung, LR Carrasco, JDT De Alban, AN Diment, AK Ko, M Rao, D Schmidt‐Vogt, YM Soe, & EL Webb. (2020). Gold, farms, and forests: Enforcement and alternative livelihoods are unlikely to disincentivize informal gold mining. Conservation Science and Practice, 2(3), e142. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.142.
  6. De Alban JDT, GW Prescott, KM Woods, J Jamaludin, KT Latt, CL Lim, AC Maung, & EL Webb. (2019). Integrating analytical frameworks to investigate land-cover regime shifts in dynamic landscapes. Sustainability, 11(4), 1139. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041139.
  7. De Alban JDT, GM Connette, P Oswald, & EL Webb. (2018). Combined Landsat and L-Band SAR data improves land cover classification and change detection in dynamic tropical landscapes. Remote Sensing, 10(2), 306. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10020306.
  8. Lim CL, GW Prescott, JDT De Alban, AD Ziegler, & EL Webb. (2017). Untangling the proximate causes and underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Myanmar. Conservation Biology, 31(6), 1362–1372. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12984.
  9. Prescott GW, WJ Sutherland, D Aguirre, M Baird, V Bowman, J Brunner, GM Connette, M Cosier, D Dapice, JDT De Alban, A Diment, J Fogerite, J Fox, W Hlaing, S Htun, J Hurd, K LaJeunesse-Connette, F Lasmana, CL Lim, … EL Webb. (2017). Political transition and emergent forest-conservation issues in Myanmar. Conservation Biology, 31(6), 1257–1270. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13021.
  10. Singh M, DA Friess, B Vilela, JDT De Alban, AKV Monzon, RKA Veridiano, & RD Tumaneng. (2017). Spatial relationships between above-ground biomass and bird species biodiversity in Palawan, Philippines. PLOS ONE, 12(12), e0186742. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186742.

Feature and publications in popular media

  1. Enano, JO. (2021). Climate change adversely affects Philippine hardwood trees — study. Philippine Daily Inquirer.
  2. Tan, A. (2021). S-E Asia’s forest giants face uncertain future: Study. The Straits Times.
  3. Guinamard, J. (2020). Plus de 60% des mangroves birmanes détruites en 20 ans. LePetitJournal.com.
  4. Ha, T. (2020). Bucking global trends, Southeast Asian mangrove destruction is rampant. Eco-Business.
  5. Caruana, C. (2020). Myanmar’s mangroves depleting faster than thought. SciDev.Net.
  6. Celestial, J. (2020). More than 60 percent of mangroves deforested over the past 20 years, Myanmar. The Watchers.
  7. (2020). More than 60% of Myanmar’s mangroves has been deforested in the last 20 years: NUS study. BioEngineer.
  8. Leotaud, VR. (2020). How to effectively address illegal gold mining — study. MINING.COM.

 Conference and presentations

  1. 2020. De Alban JDT. Understanding land-system change dynamics in Myanmar. Guest Lecture. Asian School of Environment, Nanyang Technological University. Singapore. 07 April 2020.
  2. 2019. De Alban JDT, GW Prescott, KM Woods, J Jamaludin, KT Latt, CL Lim, AC Maung, EL Webb. Integrating analytical frameworks to investigate land-cover regime shifts in dynamic landscapes. Poster Presentation. National Aeronautical Space Administration – South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (NASA SARI) Land Cover/Land Use Change International Science Meeting. Johor Bahru, Malaysia. 22 July 2019.
  3. 2018. De Alban JDT. Understanding land-system change dynamics in Myanmar. Guest Lecture. International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing – Student Consortium (ISPRS SC) Summer School and Hackathon. Chonburi, Thailand. 09 August 2018.
  4. 2015. De Alban JDT. Applications of geospatial technologies for forest and mangrove conservation. Guest Lecture. Spatial Technologies on Advancing Research Techniques (START), Department of Geography, University of the Philippines Diliman. Quezon City, Philippines. 10 November 2015.
  5. 2014. Estomata MTL, JDT De Alban, AKV Monzon, EC Paringit, FB Tavora. Climate-relevant modernisation of the National Forest Policy and piloting of REDD+ measures in the Philippines. Oral Presentation. 21st Science Team Meeting, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative – Phase 3. Kyoto, Japan. 03-04 December 2014.
  6. 2013. Estomata MTL, JDT De Alban, AKV Monzon, EC Paringit, FB Tavora. Climate-relevant modernisation of the National Forest Policy and piloting of REDD+ measures in the Philippines. Oral Presentation. 20th Science Team Meeting, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative – Phase 3. Tokyo, Japan. 02-06 December 2013.
  7. 2013. Estomata MTL, JDT De Alban, AKV Monzon, EC Paringit, FB Tavora. Climate-relevant modernisation of the National Forest Policy and piloting of REDD+ measures in the Philippines. Oral Presentation. 19th Science Team Meeting, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative – Phase 3. Tokyo, Japan. 08-12 April 2013.
  8. 2012. Tavora FB, JDT De Alban, EC Paringit, AKV Monzon, MTL Estomata. Climate-relevant modernisation of the National Forest Policy and piloting of REDD+ measures in the Philippines. Oral Presentation. 18th Science Team Meeting, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative – Phase 3. Tokyo, Japan. 07-09 November 2012.
  9. 2012. Tavora FB, JDT De Alban, EC Paringit, AKV Monzon. Climate-relevant modernisation of the National Forest Policy and piloting of REDD+ measures in the Philippines. Oral Presentation. 17th Science Team Meeting, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative – Phase 3. Tokyo, Japan. 26-29 March 2012.
  10. 2011. Tavora FB, JDT De Alban, EC Paringit. Climate-relevant modernisation of the National Forest Policy and piloting of REDD+ measures in the Philippines. Oral Presentation. 16th Science Team Meeting, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative – Phase 3. Tokyo, Japan. 17-21 October 2011.