Coffee With Conservationists

Invest - Collaborate - Educate

Coffee with Conservationists was born out of The Belize Collection’s desire to make meaningful impact in areas of environmental sustainability. We wanted to go beyond our environmentally friendly practices already taking place at our resorts. It began as a simply by brainstorming resort based Earth Day ideas and panned out into a year-long project involving eight conservation organizations. Our team felt strongly about using the platform we’ve steadily built with our brand to give an audience to crucial blue and green conservation work taking place in Belize. We wanted to have important conversations about the daily work that takes place behind the scenes to keep Belize a beloved little country and top tourist destination. We saw a gap we could fill.

EPISODE 8

Dr. Marisa Tellez

Founder/Executive Director
Crocodile Research Coalition

Established in January 2016, the Crocodile Research Coalition is a science-led conservation organization aiming to preserve crocodiles and their habitats in Central America. Founder Dr. Marisa Tellez tells us about their projects and their two ambassadors, Gilly and Hamanasi, who can be “adopted” along with their friends Aemon and Corozal. All the captive crocs are rescues living better lives with the CRC after being rescued from dire situations. Dr. Tellez hopes her crocodile ambassadors can help dispel the myths that have harmed crocodile populations in the past. With an all-around approach to conservation, Dr. Tellez also focuses on community projects to improve habitats such as mangrove planting.