BWRC medical crew at Raspaculo reservoir.

The Wildlife Institute (WI) was founded in 2011 to provide wildlife & educational tourism products to support wildlife conservation. WI is an experiment in innovative conservation finance. WI’s aim is to provide a sustainable income stream to selected wildlife projects by developing tourism products that directly support them.  WI’s first project was the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic (BWRC) for which WI developed an internship program and veterinary courses, providing significant revenue to BWRC.

BWRC co-founders Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand and Justin Ford working on a wildlife patient.

BWRC co-founder Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand started her career in Wildlife as a veterinary student/volunteer during the many years she spent in Central America and Europe. Over the past decade, her passion for Wildlife Medicine and Conservation has developed into a career as a Wildlife Vet, and Professor of Wildlife Medicine. BWRC co-founder Justin Ford provides the much needed behind the scenes support that make the clinic operations, and educational programs possible. When he is not working on educational programs and internships for BWRC, Justin teaches Natural Resource Management  and Eco-tourism Development at Sacred Heart Junior College in San Ignacio, Belize.

BWRC/WI Wildlife veterinary interns

Help us make a difference. Join us for an internship or a course in Wildlife Medicine or an insider’s tour that makes a difference.