President, Dr Neil Stuart
Neil is a lecturer in geography at Edinburgh University and has worked on projects in Belize since he was part of an expedition to survey of the coastal mangroves of Belize in 1991. He was one of the leaders of the 1996 Expedition to the Booth River and has since worked extensively on the use of satellite imagery to study Belize’s savanna ecosystem. From 2009-2012 he led a project to assess the biodiversity of Belize’s savannas funded by the Uk Darwin Initiative, with partners including the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh, the Belize Botanic Gardens, the University of Belize and Belize Zoo. Many of Neil’s Masters and PhD students also undertake research projects in Belize and so he spends time in Belize most years. Neil has been on the organising committee for the many UKBA meetings held in Edinburgh over the years at both the RBGE and at the University.
Expedition Officer, Chris Minty MBE
Chris Minty has spent much his adult life in Belize either working or travelling in the country. Following service in the British Forces, Chris left to pursue a career in science, starting by completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Ecology & Environment and then a Master’s Degree in Natural Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh. His love of fieldwork, inspired by Professor Peter Furley, was clear from the outset and he went on to lead and worked on a series of expeditions in Belize during the 90’s. In 1997, Chris joined London’s Natural History Museum as the resident manager at Las Cuevas Research Station in the Chiquibul Forest, Cayo. For 8 years Chris basically lived full-time in the bush – either at the Station in its remote setting in the forest or actually on expeditions. He has supported literally hundreds of science projects ranging from soil surveys and student study groups to the re-introduction of Harpy Eagles into the wild, he led the Wildlife Impact Assessment of the Macal River Upper Storage Facility (Chalillo Dam) and has sat on several Belize Government advisory panels. Chris pioneered live-webcasts from the remote jungle location back to the NHM, the San Francisco Exploratorium and many other visitor centres and has appeared in several National Geographic documentaries. His outstanding achievements in Belize led to his being awarded the MBE in 2007 for services to the conservation of the Central American rainforest. Now as Chief Executive of The Silvanus Trust, a woodland conservation charity, Chris maintains close links with Belize leading private trips to the Chiquibul Forest and facilitating science and student expeditions whenever he can. He is an Associate Director of Full Basket Belize, a 501c entity in the US supporting grass roots conservation and education projects and he has been a committee member of the UK Belize Association since 1996.
Dr David Howard (University of Oxford)
David is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. He is Director for the DPhil in Sustainable Urban Development and Director of Studies for the Sustainable Urban Development Programme at the University of Oxford, which promotes lifelong learning for those with professional and personal interests in urban development. David is also Co-Director of the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation at Kellogg College. The Centre hosts public debates and promotes research on key urban issues affecting society today, with the aim to provoke discussion and constructive action, linking current best practice in related areas of research.
He is a member of the Management Committee for the Latin American Centre at the University of Oxford, a CNRS Research Associate at Université Bordeaux, and Chair of the David Nicholls Memorial Trust. He was previously a Senior Lecturer in the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, following postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, the City University of New York and the University of Melbourne. His research relates to historical and contemporary Caribbean societies, with a specific focus on colonial legacies, urban development, and social sustainability. His current research interests focus on access to basic services and shelter in low-income, urban neighbourhoods in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
Her Excellency Therese Rath – High Commissioner to the UK
Belize’s new High Commissioner Her Excellency Therese Rath arrived in the UK in July with her husband, nature photographer Tony Rath. Their children remain at home running the family hotel business. Her Excellency’s work/life balance has so far been relatively in sync. “I married an adventurer, so when I’m not working, I follow. In the short time we’ve been here, I’ve seen Stonehenge and spotted Windrush graffiti in Bristol. My sister also lives in Bedfordshire, so I try to be open to the adventures my family provide me with.”
The High Commissioner believes her “lifestyle and family upbringing has very much prepared [her] for this role.” Her grandfather built a hotel in the small town where she grew up, and her family ran it. “Travellers interested in natural history were attracted to the area, boosted by the opening of the world’s first Jaguar Reserve, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, a few years later.” When the World Wildlife Fund hosted a workshop at the hotel, the High Commissioner “was converted, kicking off a lifelong passion for conservation.”
Meanwhile, the Smithsonian Institution from Washington DC had chosen a small island owned by her grandfather for a marine lab. “They settled there and have been our tenants for 45 years.” It was there that she met her husband, who was posted as the station manager. “The marine life is very special. Belize has the longest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, second only to Australia.”
High Commissioner Rath has been the Managing Director of the family business, Pelican Beach Resorts since 1984, across two locations: ‘inland adventure’ in Dangriga and ‘island paradise’ on South Water Caye. Alongside this, Mrs Rath has held many Public Service roles throughout her career, most notably Chair of the Belize Tourism Board, President of the Belize Hotel Association, President of the Belize Audubon Society (Belize’s oldest conservation organisation), and founding member of Board of the Directors of Programme for Belize managing over 300,000 acres of land in northern Belize. “Belize is a special place in terms of natural resources. Over 60 per cent of our land has protected area status, and we have the largest cave system in Central America. Of the cruise lines that come to the area, Belize has the highest disembarkation rate in the Caribbean, because there is so much to do! Tony’s photographs do a great job of documenting Belize’s natural beauty.”
Throughout her career, she says “I’ve been able to pull the various synergies together to fight to maintain the authenticity of Belize’s product: the value, rareness and beauty of Belize’s natural resources.” A spell as Senator of the National Assembly of Belize was good training for diplomacy
Barbara Bulmer-Thomas
Barbara facilitates the UKBA meetings on alternate years and develops the network of interested parties. She is an independent researcher.
Barbara is a Belizean-born plant taxonomist an has authored Journey Through Mexico (Countries Today Series). The book describes the geography, sights, and prominent places of Mexico, and includes a chart of key facts and information on the population, religion, and festivals. Additionally, Barbara has co-authored The Economic History of Belize with her husband Victor Bulmer-Thomas.
Dr Elma Kay – Director, Belize Maya Forest Trust
Elma is most passionate about the development of conservation models at the landscape-level that integrate biodiversity protection with community participation, sustainable financing and strategic partnerships. Elma is the first Managing Director of the Belize Maya Forest Trust, a non-governmental organization entrusted with the stewardship and management of Belize’s second largest private protected area.
Prior to this Elma co-founded the University of Belize Environmental Research Institute working as the Science Director (Terrestrial) and Administrative Director for a decade. This included representing the University of Belize in numerous regional and national councils, boards and expert groups addressing protected areas policy and financing, REDD+, climate change and the environment.
As a biologist who combines 20 years of experience in research and teaching, conservation practice and policy, and organizational leadership with significant experience in stakeholder engagement and management, strategic planning and coalition building to achieve larger outcomes. Elma through her activism and close collaboration with local and international partners has helped to secure the protection of over a quarter million acres of Belize’s most highly threatened forests in the Belize Maya Forest and the Maya Forest Corridor.
Elma continues to strive for effective and lasting conservation in her country through mentorship of students, young professionals, and community-based conservation groups and is currently the Chairwoman of Belize Network of NGOs, the Maya Forest Corridor Trust, and Belize’s Scientific Authority for the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Elma also proudly serves as Vice President of Friends for Conservation and Development, co-manager of Belize’s single largest National Park, and in the board of directors of Silk Grass Wildlife Reserve, Belize’s first model of sustainable financing for protected areas through a certified B-corporation.
Elma’s love of nature and biology came from growing up in rural Belize where most of her family time was spent outdoors. Her passion for conservation was ignited in yer youth, especially after a two-week experience in the forests of the Rio Bravo in northwestern Belize and Belize’s Barrier Reef at Southwater Caye. Elma does her best to share such meaningful field experiences with her sons and other young Belizeans.
Irene Bews – Adventura Scotland
Irene was a teacher for over 20 years and is an experienced leader in the outdoors. She has facilitated and led groups on expeditions in Europe and further afield with an emphasis on personal development/group dynamics in the outdoors. She practices as a counsellor and delivers outdoors experiential courses for leadership qualifications. She is an Accredited Assessor for D of E’s Award, and SML, TCL trained.
Together with Ally they run Adventura Scotland an Adventure Activities Licensing Authority approved organisation that along with being a Duke of Edinburgh approved activity provider run conservation and education expeditions to Belize, Germany, Norway, Spain and Greenland
Dr. Kate Quinn – University of London
Kate is Associate Professor of Caribbean History at the UCL Institute of the Americas. Previously, she headed the Caribbean programme at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, School of Advanced Study, which she joined as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and subsequently Lecturer in Modern History in 2005. She served for many years on the Committee of the Society for Caribbean Studies and was Chair of the Society from 2012-2014. She has also served as Chair of the Haiti Support Group, a UK-based advocacy organisation, and remains a regular member.
Dr Quinn’s research focuses on the post-war history of the Caribbean. Thematic interests include democracy and governance in the post-independence Anglophone Caribbean; Black Power and the Caribbean left; Caribbean intellectual traditions; and interactions between political, intellectual and cultural movements across the region. Her publications include Beyond Westminster in the Caribbean (2018), with Brian Meeks; Black Power in the Caribbean (2014); and Politics and Power in Haiti (2013), with Paul Sutton. She is currently working on an edited volume on 1968 in the Americas, and a monograph on Black Power and Radical Politics in the Caribbean.
Dr Malcolm Penn
Malcolm is the GIS manager/specialist at the Natural History Museum, London. He has led and collaborated on many biodiversity projects in Belize since the early nineties, these include mapping the vegetation of the Greater Maya Mountains, investigating the spatial variation of soil properties at differing scales, leading botanical expeditions to Victoria Peak and sampling tropical tree species variation throughout the Chiquibul forest. Consequently, he became the NHM Scientific Leader for Las Cuevas Research Station (LCRS) where he helped manage the station manager, and lead research based at LCRS, securing funding and liaising and communicating with the Government of Belize, Forest Department and NGO’s.
More recently he has been involved in Darwin projects mapping biodiversity and leading the assessment of key indicator species mapping across Belize and has collaborated with most of the key biodiversity stakeholders in Belize. Malcolm, has been on the UKBA organising committee since its foundation, and is presently ensuring the georeferencing of NHM Belize specimens is complete and available through the NHM portal.
Richard (Committee member from 2004) & Emma Wotton
After working qualifying as an accountant and working with NatWest for a number of years in their Structured Finance – Finance Control function Richard inspired by his Belizean (Woods & Loring are the Belizean family names) and British heritage established Conservation Corridors in 1996.
This is a British based charity set up to promote the concepts of biological corridors through:
- Developing and executing heritage adventure challenges to biological corridors.
- Raising funds and awareness for social initiatives in the biological corridors through the heritage adventure challenges.
- Serving as cultural bridge uniting Belizean innovation with British structure and scaffolding in Conservation, Challenge and Heritage.
In c. 2003 Emma joined Richard as a trustee and as part their early years from 1996 to 2013 they:
- Developed and implemented a Heritage adventure challenge that saw adventurers participate in the Indian Creek Trail, La Ruta Maya and meet the house mother of Marla’s House of Hope the social initiative the charity’s funds raised to go to.
- Through these challenges they raised funds and awareness for social initiatives in the biological corridors and the adventure challenges managed to raise several thousand pounds for Marla’s House of Hope. Marla’s House of Hope provides safe, loving nurturing care for God’s children who have been removed form an abusive environment.
- Provided a resource model scoping services for Belizean organisations endeavouring to attract UK volunteer resources to work with them on short term voluntary assignments.
- On a voluntary basis provided Finance and Programme Management services to Help For Progress in Belmopan.
- Undertook Britain’s Great North Swim for Conservation Corridors
Reflecting on these experiences highlighted the challenge of supporting the charity whilst in a full-time permanent positions, the need for greater experience working with charities and fund raising. These factors combined with the advent of children led:
- Richard to pivot his permanent career into Richard Wotton Associates a contract consultancy service firm which provides Finance Transformation and Business Management Systems services. This has enabled Richard to work in the UK Insurance industry supporting the industry through numerous changes, the implementation of Bulk Purchase Annuities and IFRS 17 being the most recent. Professionally and vocationally Richard’s two worlds hopefully will finally unite by working:
- With Matters Practical to develop Transformation Programmes to support FTSE and AIM listed entities as well as Public Interest Entities on the TPT & TCFD. TPT or the Transition Plan Taskforce was launched by HM Treasury in April 2022 to develop the gold standard for private sector climate transition plans. TCFD or the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures is the framework developed by the Financial Stability Board and if adopted into the IASB’s Accounting Standard’s board will become mandatory.
- On IFRS 17 and ICFR (UK SOx) Transitions Programmes
- Richard to return to his childhood passions of Rugby and Basketball working as volunteer coach rugby coach specialising in children (ages U6 to U16) with ADHD.
- Emma to pivot from her full-time teaching roles as Head of French and German at Stonyhurst College to Northumbria’s Alumni and Fundraising Programme Manager
- Richard and Emma to join the Stonyhurst Association where they have recently completed organising the St Cuthbert’s Way Pilgrimage for the Association. The pilgrimage which fits into 5-day walking unites 62 miles of Scottish and English countryside from Melrose to Holy Islands and lent itself to mass, rosary and selected Gospel readings for the following intentions:
- Families living with Dementia
- The Stonyhurst Foundation – the 1593 Club and its objectives.
- Border disputes past and present – the Belize Guatemala issue was very present.
- Stonyhurst’s education mission
- The Pilgrim’s private intention
With regards to the continued development of Conservation Corridors services they:
- Continue to maintain UKBA’s (this) website
- are going through a process of integrating their Fundraising, Sports coaching, TCT and TCFD initiatives along with the St Cuthbert’s Way pilgrimage in the expectation that they will revitalise the charity’s services over the next 3 – 6 years.