Róger Madrigal is Center Director and Senior Research Fellow at EfD-CAM. He is an environmental economist and received his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in Germany. He is the academic coordinator of the MSc Program in Economics, Development, and Climate Change at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). He is also the director of the Latin American Chair on Environmental Decisions for Global Change (CLADA), at CATIE.

Dr. Madrigal is an environmental economist with over two decades of experience in applied research, policy advisory work, and international cooperation projects, mainly across Latin America and the Caribbean. His work focuses on community-based rural water systems, sustainable consumption and production, and the design of economic and financial instruments to support watershed and biodiversity conservation initiatives. More recently, his work has expanded to marine and coastal economics, including ocean governance and marine spatial planning. His profile combines research, policy engagement, and capacity building. He has advised governments, multilateral development banks, and international organizations on environmental policy design and implementation.

Research interests

Water economics
Climate change adaptation
Design of policy instruments
Institutional economics
Common-pool resources management
Economic valuation of ecosystem services
Marine economics

Mentoring

Dr Madrigal has been the primary advisor for 30 MSc students at CATIE and the Universidad de Costa Rica. He is also a member of students' advisory committees at Wageningen University, the University of Vermont, and Osnabrück University.

Grant and consultancy

Madrigal has led different consultancies and research projects for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Tinker Foundation, the World Bank (WB), the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI), Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI), the CARSI-Embassy of the United States of America, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), among others.

Selected grants and consultancies include:

Enhancing Rural Water Management Networks in Colombia and Costa Rica. Tinker Foundation.
Economic incentives to support a transition to sustainable and equitable agriculture in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Interamerican Development Bank (IADB).
The economic cost of plastic in Costa Rica. PNUD.
Financial feasibility study for the creation of a sustainable fishing fleet for tuna in Costa Rica's Exclusive Economic Zone. Forever Costa Rica Association.
Design of a PES scheme for ecosystem restoration in El Salvador. UICN.
Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR): Financial mechanism and economic valuation of ecosystem services. The World Bank.
Ecosystem Services Mapping, Prioritization and Economic Valuation in the Shekerley Mountains Management Area. Department of Environment, Antigua and Barbuda.
Developing a financial programme for Sustainable Land Management and Climate Smart Agriculture practices in St Kitts and Nevis. UICN
Feasibility assessment of a Water Fund in the Trifinio region (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala). IADB.
The economics of Marine Spatial Planning. The World Bank.
Impact evaluation of PES on water resources in Costa Rica. AFD.
Accountability, use of technology, and citizen participation for improving rural water scarcity and affordability in the Global South
A network of water observatories and policy studies. SIDA through EfD Initiative.
Social and ecological factors affecting the performance of community-based water organizations (CWOs) in Central America. SIDA through EfD Initiative.
Design of Payments for Ecosystem Services program in Kingston, Jamaica. IADB.
Feasibility of irrigation and human water infrastructure project for the Tempisque Watershed (PAACUME). Costa Rica. CABEI.
Water, communities, and climate change (AC3). Nicaragua, Guatemala y Costa Rica. IDRC.

Policy engagement

Madrigal has fostered successful collaboration with national and municipal governments, grassroots organizations, esteemed international agencies, and multilateral banks. Examples include long-term collaborations with Costa Rican government entities, such as FONAFIFO (responsible for the PES program), SINAC (responsible for Conservation Areas), and AyA (water provider and regulator), among others. He has built relationships with government entities in Central America, including those engaged in watershed management in the Trifinio Region (a transboundary watershed in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) and those focused on irrigation water in Nicaragua.

Awards

He received the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) fellowship, the Norman Borlaug Fellowship, the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Fellowship, and fellowships from Gothenburg University and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.