Adelina Santos-Borja

Philippines

Chair, Southeast Asian Limnological Network (SEALNet)　

Ms. Adelina C. Santos-Borja brings over four decades of experience and expertise in Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM). She spent the majority of her professional career at the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), culminating in her retirement in 2020 as Manager of the Resource Management and Development Department. Her tenure as a public servant was distinguished by establishing strong partnerships with local and international organizations in the field of collaborative and demand-driven research, pioneering efforts in lake conservation, science-based policy development, stakeholder engagement and the promotion of citizen science.

She is a founding member of the Society for the Conservation of Philippine Wetlands, the Philippine Society for Freshwater Science, and the Southeast Asian Limnological Network. In 2005, she joined the ILEC Scientific, serving as a Bureau Member from 2007 to 2015 and as one of its Vice Chairpersons from 2016 to 2025.

Ms. Santos-Borja holds two Master of Science degrees in Biology and Environmental Science from the University of the Philippines. She has also received specialized training in Limnology at the Institute of Limnology in Austria, Lake and River Water Quality Management at ILEC, Resource and Environmental Management at the Australian National University, Water Leadership at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and Plastics in Marine and Freshwater Environments at the German Federal Institute for Hydrology, among others.

Her active participation in international expert meetings, workshops, and conferences has been widely recognized. She received the Ibaraki Kasumigaura Award at the World Lake Conference in 1997, 2003, and 2016 for her outstanding contributions to lake conservation and management and the Environmental Science and Management Award at the First Philippine Symposium on Freshwater Biodiversity and Environment in 2016.

She continues to contribute to the scientific community as a reviewer for peer-reviewed journals and as a published author and co-author. She served as the Editor-in-Chief of Progress on Ecosystem Restoration of Tropical Inland Waters: On the Path of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, published by Springer in 2025.