Welcome

Hi, my name is Tom Pasquarello, and I am a professor of political science who specializes in environmental policy. I first visited Belize more than a dozen years ago, and I immediately fell in love with this beautiful country that, as author Bruce Barcott wrote, is "firmly attached to Central America but considers itself a Caribbean island." Shortly thereafter, my friend and biologist colleague Steve Broyles and I started bringing our students at SUNY Cortland to Belize to study how environment and economy interact in developing nations. The Belize Zoo was usually on our itinerary when we visited, so I was delighted to learn that another colleague from biology Tim Baroni was bringing Sharon Matola, the zoo's founder and director, to our campus to speak. Sharon's talk brought the house down, and shortly thereafter several of us decided we wanted to help the zoo with its conservation and education programs in Belize. We founded SUNY Cortland's Belize Zoo Project to raise friends and funds for the zoo. That, in turn, got me invited to a Belize Zoo fundraiser that John and Nancy Kennedy held at their home in Milwaukee. During my visit John, Nancy, Sharon, Claudia Duenas (the zoo's business manager) and I decided that we would start this blog to help get the word out about about the important and exciting work being done at the zoo. We hope you like it. If you do, visit often and please tell your friends about us!

P.S. You may enlarge photos within posts by clicking on the images.