There's a new head honcho at the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center. Celso Poot, the former manager of operations and finance, has now been promoted to director, succeeding the late Sharon Matola.
Poot, who has been working at the zoo since 1995, will take over the leadership of the zoo - a job he says he's well prepared for. And even in trying times for the zoo, he has a bright vision for their future. He spoke with us via zoom today.
Celso Poot, Director, The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center
"To be honest with you, it's a role that I have been fulfilling for a while now, I have been the operations/finance manager since 2008, I have been responsible for the day to day operation of the Belize Zoo and the Tropical Education Center. As the director of the Belize Zoo, I am now tasked with he responsibility of providing leadership and vision for the zoo as we move forward."
"We continue to struggle financially, not having tourism in the country has really impacted the Belize Zoo and Tropical Center greatly. We get our revenue for operation through sales in the giftshop, through ticket sales, and through group stays over at the tropical education center. Most of these groups are international groups visiting Belize or doing study abroad, semester in Belize or they're doing field courses in Belize and they use the tropical center as their home base. So not having tourism in the country has really impacted us. What has helped us is the generosity and good will of Belizeans who are firm supporters of this zoo so we have gotten donations from Belizeans home and abroad."
"I know what it takes to run the zoo financially, operationally, I have to develop and rekindle some of the relationship we've had with donors, especially those that are abroad, we have to maintain that relationship because a lot of people are committed to seeing the Belize Zoo and Tropical education Center succeed."
"We will keep the legacy that Miss Matola started, that she left us with to carry on, and we will evolve the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center into a center for conservation science, so most people see zoo as recreational or amusement park. The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center is different, we focus heavily on conservation and education and one of the other component of zoos globally is research so what we would want to do is to guide the zoo into that area, into research, where we can help develop policies or management plan for these species that we have on sight and to provide guidance into their conservation into the future."
The zoo is taking donations, whether financially or in the form of food for the animals. They are also encouraging as many Belizeans to visit the zoo and, if possible, to adopt an animal.
