About Us
On Thursday 13th - Saturday 15th of August 2009 the first Belize Wildlife Conservation Networking Conference took place at Central Farm. The main goal of the conference was to increase communication and collaboration between the Forest Department of Belize and the non-governmental wildlife conservation community.
The conference led to the creation of the "Belize Wildlife Conservation Network" (BWCN). Attendees included an impressive list of stakeholders in Belize's wildlife conservation community - see the list of conference attendees. The main goals for the BWCN are to increase communication, share information and enhance collaboration between the different entities working in wildlife conservation as well as interested individuals.
The Belize Wildlife Conservation Network's website is open to the public and also serves as a source of information for cases of human-wildlife conflict and emergencies.
In discussion with the Forest Department the creation of a "Panel of Advisors" was encouraged. The BWCN Panel of Advisors was created to assist the Forest Department as consultants in questions relating to wildlife conservation.
BWCN – The first year update: August 15th 2010
Dear Colleagues, Friends and Partners in Conservation,
Today one year ago most of you joined the first Belize Wildlife Networking Conference at Galen University. The main goal of the conference was to encourage communication and networking, and I personally think that this goal was accomplished for most of us.
Since the conference I have operated BWCN as a group of interested individuals mostly via individual emails. So now I would like to finally update all of you on some of the many goings-on for BWCN in this past year.
Over the past year, BWCN members have engaged in discussions assisting the Forest Department as consultants for the Amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act and the Wildlife Order. This was accomplished via the BWCN website, which is still a work in progress, as well as via two meetings in Belmopan. On the ground, BWCN have assisted the Forest Department in several wildlife rescues. BWCN has received medical supply donations and is currently distributing and asking for wishlists from you. And last but not least, we have been asked to identify conservation NGOs to be featured at the 2011 Earth Day Festival in Berlin, Germany.
I will briefly present on these activities and would appreciate any questions, feedback, comments, opinions and hopefully some assistance for some of the future goals. I would also like your opinions on the decision to pursue NGO status for BWCN. One reason: I am currently receiving donations from US organizations with which I am personally connected, who do not require me to have NGO status, but just trust me. Nonetheless I keep track of every donation and I could see expanding this service as there is truly an overabundance of perfectly ok, steril etc., medical supply items that get thrown in the garbage. So, I personally think we need the non-profit status, mostly for credibility and maybe for tax exemptions. But I would like to know; what do you think on this topic and anything else you would like to share with the network?
We are also exploring the options for a Belize Wildlife Health Institute (with a wildlife teaching hospital and much more) and will keep you updated on this exciting project and hope to engage you in this process.
In conservation,
Dr. Isabelle
Dr. med. vet. I. Paquet-Durand
Wildlife Veterinarian, Consultant and Medical Translator
Founder and Administrator of the Belize Wildlife Conservation Network
ipaquet@gmx.net
BWCN Website: The website was created under www.galen.edu.bz/belizewildlife to inform about the conference, proceedings and minutes as well as to facilitate discussion between members. The future goal to provide information to the general public regarding wildlife conflict resolution and more, was announced upon initiation of website.
In my personal opinion the website served its purpose well for the facilitation of the law discussion online with good participation (over 50 posts!). It has had limited use for other discussions and some information regarding wildlife conflict was uploaded. Since January of this year the website is „frozen“. It can be viewed as created for information on the conference but cannot be updated anymore. So in order to continue this website the content needs to be moved over to another provider. The original site was created by myself with the support of Galen University and the IT staff but unfortunately this support is no longer available. Feedback and volunteers to assist this endeavour would be much welcomed.
A Facebook page was also created.
Continued consulting on Amendments to Wildlife Protection Act and Wildlife Order with BWCN Panel of Advisors:
Shortly after the conference, all BWCN members were invited to join the Panel of Advisors in order to assist non-public online discussion. Interested individiuals wanting to contribute to this effort were/are also invited to join this Panel of Advisors. After three rounds of online discussion on law amendment and order drafts, two meetings were held at the Forest Department to discuss WPA and WO „in person“ and representatives of the following organizations assisted Rasheda Garcia (formerly Sampson) with their professional feedback on some of the final details: Panthera, WildlifeCareCenter, ACES, Belize Bird Rescue, CASA and Yax’che Conservation Trust. Special thanks also go to the detailed written revisions of Paul Walker from Wildtracks and Osmany Salas, as well as to Ed Clark (Wildlife Center of Virginia) and Jeff Alvarez (The Wildlife project) from the US.
My utmost respect to the dedication of Mrs Garcia (formerly Miss Sampson) to pursue this challenging project of law revision and writing. After five draft versions the WPA Amendments have been turned in for revision by the ministry and we hope to continue to assist if necessary. BWCN members also stand by to further discuss details of the Wildlife Order.
Assistance of BWCN members to Forest Department in Rescues of injured or care for confiscated or rescued animals:
Of course the respective projects have provided their specific assistance in rehabilitation as before the conference. But in addition to the individual efforts several noteworthy group efforts were coordinated through recently networked connections:
The first call after the conference was received in October, regarding an adult tapir who was found at Bacab Lodge close to the Boom road turn-off on the northern highway. The tapir was first examined and found blind and paralysed. He was then relocated to the Belize Zoo for intensive care and futher observation, where he passed within one day due to his severe condition despite treatment attempts. Involved in this rescue were Belize Bird Rescue, The Belize Zoo, Andre Lopez from the BFD and Dr. Isabelle.
The next call was about a male howler monkey who was „lost“ on the wrong side of the highway (far from forested area in village behind The Belize Zoo). Villagers were afraid of him and had chased him up a single tree in the middle of their village and some concerned individuals called the Zoo to get help. To the rescue came Belize Bird Rescue, monkey rehabber Robin Brocket from the Wildlife Care Center (WCC), a monkey researcher (Brittany Dean) and Dr. Isabelle. The monkey was captured and relocated successfully.
In December a confiscated tamandua in poor condition with a broken arm (he came from a person known to have owned and lost numerous ant eaters in the past) was cared for by the WildlifeCareCenter, then CASA Avian Support Alliance, and then Belize Bird Rescue. He was in need of intensive care and multiple hours of free roaming yet always supervised insect grazing every day. Despite not having a dedicated person or project to deal with these animals, through the cooperation of multiple dedicated individuals he was saved from certain death and ultimately went back to WCC to be released.
Also in December, a baby jaguarundi was delivered to my door by the owner of Better in Belize who had „confiscated“ (no pay) this animal from workers who had „rescued him“ early in the day while cutting lines for electricity. Unfortunately, the workers did not realize that they had stumbled across a nest and that mom would be back later. Upon receipt the animal was extremely dehydrated and very weak but after rehydration and care overnight he had regained strength (funny when a wild cat of 200grams max is feisty, hissing and spitting). He was returned the next day (within a little more than 24h total) to the site where he had been „rescued“, to be reunited with his mother. Due to location and lack of equipment we could not directly survey the reunion but mom was seen and heard in the area. Volunteers at CASA, visiting rehabbers, volunteers at Better in Belize and myself were involved in this rescue.
Last but not least I want to mention the great cooperation that was achieved in the rescue of a yellow crowned night heron from San Pedro. The bird was reported by a concerned individual and thanks to the coordination of Nikki Buxton from Belize Bird Rescue, with the help of Maya Air the bird was flown to Belmopan and then brought to CASA by the Forest Department. Unfortunately the patient succumbed to the injuries shortly after arrival. But the joined effort of Forest Department, members of BWCN and concerned individuals for this injured bird appears noteworthy.
First Donations received and distributed. A service to expand?
BWCN has received $7,000 US worth of supplies (sutures, gauze, syringes, needles, catheters, instruments; please ask for full list) mostly from the Wildlife Center of Virginia. Further contributions have been made by Dr. Mike in form of a refractometer, CASA in form of 100 Bz for an ophthalmoscope, Jeff Alvarez with a $ donation (used for shipping) and last but not least Dr. Bogdanovic from Ross University in providing an x-ray machine head to be used on belizean wildlife .
These donations are provided and shipped free of cost to Houston and then BWCN pays for the shipping. One batch of donations was brought in via airport (no shipping cost) and one batch had to be paid @ $230Bz. $150Bz were invested in storage containers to prevent rot and insect invasions. These costs were covered by a remainder of $380Bz from the 2009 conference.
I am currently working on shipping the x-ray developer which we still lack. It has been located by WCV and shipped at their cost to Houston – this is heavy equipment, unfortunately and the shipping to Belize will be an estimated 100-200 Bz. Even without the developer however, we have been able to use the x-ray machine to examine a severely injured howler monkey, and aid in the treatment of an owl with a broken shoulder, by developing the film in Belmopan (kindly paid for by Belize Bird Rescue).
It surprised me how few donations were requested at first, but after selecting articles known to be useful to the recipients, so far over $2000 US worth of donations have been distributed to 4 humane societies, 5 projects and 4 veterinarians. I expect to soon distribute more and I hope to engage more veterinarians to occasionally assist in wildlife matters through these free supplies.
We have been asked to provide wishlists so please tell us what you need and we will see if we can find it for you (at no more then shipping cost).
Earth Day 2011 opportunity:
BWCN has been asked to refer conservation organizations (with NGO status in Belize or US) to be featured by music bands at the 2011 Earth Day Festival in Berlin, Germany. This promises to be a LARGE event and a great opportunity for awareness on Belize and our conservation organizations. Several organizations have expressed interest (ACES, WildlifeCareCenter, CASA and Birds without Borders as well as Felidae Conservation Fund) and we will hear more about the numbers of organizations, details needed and possible benefits soon.
Future goals and help needed
Website and future communication and discussion:
As said earlier the website needs „help“. Do we want to keep this website going and change to a new provider? Most importantly do we have any volunteers and/or donors to finance such things? FYI: the current website was free of charge, content created by me and with the help of Galen IT staff (so this was possible with very low cost, yet quite work intensive). I am looking into the possibility of moving it over to our new company website which could provide the address as well as some IT support. But I hope for your feedback to decide how we should proceed. Just let me know.
As long as we have no functioning discussion page on the website, and in general, I would like to encourage the use of this mailing list for BWCN related news, questions or discussions. If you have a Newsletter or Update, why not share it with the group? I believe we are still such a small group that we could do this without major structure and just start by hitting reply all? But, as usual, I am open and interested in your opinions on this as well.
NGO status:
It appears to me that people feel strongly about status of organisations and I have now for a year administrated BWCN without legal status (yet obeying the same documentation) as a group of interested individuals. This again was done due to its simplicity but also mostly due to lack of funds. The cost for NGO status was recently increased an is now about $2000Bz. I personally believe that BWCN would profit from having the official status but I am in no position to finance this (nor do I know of grants which can be used to achieve NGO status). So any feedback, help and/or donations would be much appreciated. What do you think? Any suggestions?
Belize Wildlife Institute or Hospital:
Please send me an email if you would like to see a brief recent concept for this institution and its mission and goals. In a nut shell: the „institute“ should connect and complement the existing NGOs to asist the governement (FD) in fulfilling their mandate in wildlife conservation and management. The institute should provide medical services and educate about wildlife, assist in rescues and care of confiscated animals, address wildlife conflict and continue to facilitate networking. Conversations have officially started with the Forest Department and we had a first meeting with a group of core stake holders to do a SWOT analysis and discuss further details of this exciting project. I look forward to your feedback.
We hope to count on your continued support to encourage and further communication and cooperation for wildlife conservation in Belize.
Dr. Isabelle