Jamal Galvez, National Geographic Explorer

Sea to Shore Alliance Programme Coordinator, Jamal Galvez visited out studios on Tuesday, but it wasn’t to report on the case of another dead manatee along the Belize City coast; he brought good news.  The organization applied and was awarded a grant of over twenty six thousand Belize dollars from the Zoological Society of London. The money will be used to support the protection of endangered mammal in Belize through awareness campaigns, research and work with other stakeholders. Galvez has just returned from a conference in Washington D.C. where he received the prestigious designation as a National Geographic Explorer.

Jamal Galvez

Jamal Galvez, Programme Coordinator, Sea to Shore Alliance

“This grant offered more opportunity than normal because it is a partnership between the Zoological Society of London and National Geographic which makes us designated as a National Geographic explorer under the photo art program. So this is an opportunity that brings great opportunity for my work, for our efforts in Belize and to try to get the issues that manatees are facing in Belize globally known and so we can get assistance to get this issue under control in Belize. If you had asked me or told that I would become a national geographic explorer at some point in my lifetime, I wouldn’t even imagine it, I wouldn’t even consider it. I still feel like it is a dream. But it was a great opportunity meeting all these great explorers when I was young. All these wild life photographers that you’d only see on television and social media, you get a chance to meet with them to see what drives these guys; their experiences and you realize that we have so much in common. The opportunity also offered learning experience—whatever you were interested in whether it is media, research, GIS—there were numerous talks, numerous workshops. It also offered opportunity for us to listen to what other explorers are doing around the world and you realize that some of these explorers are facing the same issues that we are. So it brings heads together to see what works for some individuals; what works in Belize that they can try in perhaps Africa and other parts of the world.”