Belize Bird Rescue Seeks Urgent Funding After Losing Key Grant

The Belize Bird Rescue (BBR) is reportedly on life support and is looking raise twenty two thousand US dollars for its operating expenses for the remainder of this year.  According to BBR, it now finds itself in this pickle after a funder pulled back its grant.  That grant was intended to support BBR’s Yellow-headed Amazon Project, a cornerstone of their conservation efforts for the endangered yellow-headed parrot. Love News spoke with BBR’s founder, Nikki Buxton.

Nikki Buxton, Founder of Belize Bird Rescue: “It was a grant that we were relying on for a third of the costs of our Yellowhead Amazon monitoring program, which we were determined to go ahead with this year. And it was one of those situations where we weren’t, you know, it would be okay give us another week, give us another month. And so we went ahead with it and we found ourselves at the end of the project, having spent the money that we were hoping to get from the grant without the grant. We’re hoping maybe it will come through but we have to go under the assumption that it’s not going to and we’ve got to try and recoup some of the money that we spent. We’re looking at around $40,000 Belize dollars to get us to the end of 2024. We’re in a fortunate position that we have some regular donors that give annually, so next year I’m hoping that you know things will straighten themselves out again, but in the meantime, we’re short at 40,000 up until December. The protection aspect is, well, it almost speaks for itself in that many of these birds are either endangered or under threat of becoming an endangered species. We’re suffering with habitat loss, climate change, all of the natural disasters that are coming with that climate change. We’re still facing parrot poaching going on. And then there’s expanding human activity, land use changes and everything. So it’s important that the birds that we do have, we protect. And those that have become injured or imperiled in some way, we are here to receive those birds because that makes all the difference for that particular bird. And it also makes a difference to the rescuer as well. Somebody finds an injured or an orphan bird it’s good for them to know that there’s somewhere that this bird can go and have a chance at going back into the wild.”

BBR will be hosting various fundraising events in the coming months, but immediate support is needed. Those interested in contribution can donate via the BBR website or contact them on their Facebook or Instagram pages.