Atty. Mark Peñalver is the Executive Director of Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS)and a Davao-based environmental lawyer, admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2017. He leads IDIS in promoting sustainable environmental governance across Metropolitan Davao and Koronadal.

Atty. Peñalver has represented IDIS in major international forums, including the Third Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group for the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management in Montevideo, Uruguay; the Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Asia Conference in Seoul, South Korea; UNFCCC COP28 in Dubai; and the Fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Busan, South Korea. Under his leadership, IDIS’s Community-Based Water Monitoring System project received international recognition at the 2023 Falling Walls Conference in Berlin, Germany. In 2024, he was invited by the Falling Walls Foundation to serve on the engage advisory board, assisting in the selection of winners and guiding juries during the engage pitches.

He is an alumnus of the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative Professional Program on Sustainable Development and the Environment, with learning exposure in Rochester, Minnesota, and Dubuque, Iowa, managed by the International City/County Management Association and supported by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. He is also one of fifteen fellows in the “Climate-Resilient in Place: Nature-Based/Regenerative Placemaking Sandbox” program hosted by the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, with support from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Locally, Atty. Peñalver represents IDIS in various Local Special Bodies across Metro Davao and Koronadal, including development councils, environmental and natural resources committees, zoning and land use boards, and other participatory governance mechanisms. He also serves as a Regional Technical Evaluation Committee (RTEC) evaluator for DOST Region XI, lending his expertise to assess and strengthen science- and evidence-based programs and proposals.

In addition, he teaches Media Law and Ethics at the Humanities and Letters Division, School of Arts and Sciences, Ateneo de Davao University.

Committed to environmental justice, Atty. Peñalver continues to collaborate with diverse sectors to advance inclusive, impactful, and forward-looking environmental policies in protecting our watersheds and in advancing a sustainable urban transformation.