Stations: Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society (T.R.E.E.S)
Location: 27.5 miles Hummingbird Highway, Stann Creek
Country: Belize, Central America
Last date to apply: January 7, 2025
Position dates: Open from January 16 – August 1, 2025 (2 week minimum)
Description:
Internships are held at the T.R.E.E.S Hosting Center, a research and education center in the Maya Mountains of Belize. The center is operated by the Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society (T.R.E.E.S), a small grassroots not-for-profit organization whose mandate is to conserve Belize’s natural and cultural heritage through education, conservation, and research. One way in which we meet our mandate is through hosting interns. By training international and local Belizean students in environmental and wildlife management, field research techniques and data collection protocols, knowledge on the biodiversity of Belizean fauna and flora will be gained. This knowledge will then be compiled into peer-reviewed publications, Belizean government reports and regulations, field guides, and other publications that will increase the global visibility of Belizean fauna and flora and aid in their management and ultimately their conservation.
The goal of our internship program is to provide interns with hands-on experience in their field of education, research, or employment under the supervision of professional biologists, while contributing to education and conservation efforts in Belize. These internships are self-directed yet supervised projects in which a short report is to be written and handed to the supervising biologist at the end of the internship session. Many of the post-secondary institutions we work with offer credited internships, but this will need to be discussed with the educational institution where the intern is currently registered. We are happy to provide the required information to the institution so that accreditation is possible.
Once at the station, you are free to help on projects of need at T.R.E.E.S. Many of the desired qualifications, physical requirements, benefits, and terms below are specific to internships we have posted. Contact us today to describe your skillset and time-frame if you are interested in joining our projects.
Qualifications:
We are looking for people with scientific research and writing skills; be able to navigate through peer-reviewed resources and write a basic literature review. Applicants should have a certain level of identification skills and should be interested in improving their techniques for proper identification and survey methods applicable in the tropics. At the field station we work mainly with mud turtles, birds, bats, and herpetofauna. Persons must be comfortable conducting field work at night, sunrise, and under direct sunlight. Should also have knowledge of inventorying and monitoring techniques of the specified taxa.
Preference is given to those who have previous experience working with the specified taxa/topic from our monitoring projects.
Internship Responsibilities:
Assisting other interns and project managers on other projects in need at T.R.E.E.S, including sustainable agriculture, landscape architecture, gardening.
Helping with data entry from different monitoring projects.
Lead a White-lipped Mud Turtle movement, habitat use, and response to flooding study using radio-telemetry.
Proper recording of herp collection data including Visual Encounter Surveys along transect lines in water bodies found on the property.
Continuing WCOM Project and Nest Survey projects. This includes the preliminary aspects of the projects such as searching for lekking sites and nests of resident birds along specified areas.
Helping with a termite-nest project studying a bat roost.
Aiding in organic agriculture, horticulture/landscaping, and trail building/maintenance.
Help us with grant writing, marketing, hospitality, community development, outreach and education, ESL teaching, and construction.
For participants with up-to-date rabies vaccine, they may also aid in nights when bat-mist netting is done. Those without can contribute in other ways such as setting up and tearing down mist-nets and collecting data for the bat monitoring project.
Interns will assist with creating captions for social media posts to engage and update followers on what has been going on at the field station and various projects that are being done.
Contributing to the production of public outreach material such as posters, pamphlets, or PowerPoint presentations on different genera, with the guidance of our biologists and trained staff.
Application:
To apply register on the Ecorana website (https://www.ecorana.ca/internship-application-form/) and e-mail your curriculum vitae/resumé, cover letter, and short video to the T.R.E.E.S Internship Coordinator, Scandia Cruz, at scruz@treesociety.org once you have submitted your application form.
For more information on our organization and facilities please visit our website: www.treesociety.org
Internship Period:
Interns can choose to do a minimum of 2 weeks to a maximum of 6 weeks during this internship program, though 4 weeks is the recommended duration.
Costs:
This internship has a fee of $334 USD/week which includes room and board (meals included Monday-Friday), full access to lab equipment, and training by professional on-site biologists. Food is not provided as part of the internship program. Interns can also purchase their own basic food supplies from nearby vendors that can be prepared simply on-site without access to a full kitchen OR interns can order meals from the on-site Toucan Café restaurant that is open daily and caters to all dietary restrictions Lodging at the research center signifies a shared dormitory-style rustic cabins with other same sex interns with full access to other facilities such as showers, restrooms, and kitchen. The nature of this program allows interns to carry out most of the work independently after the training period is done. Fees do not include airport transfer, flights, travel medical insurance, or $100 USD visitor permit fee if remaining in country for more than 30 days.
We are hoping to expand our internship program beyond North America. Belizeans and citizens from Latin America and the Caribbean will be charged at a discounted rate. For more information, kindly email Scandia Cruz with the email provided above.
Schedule:
Interns are required to work for 35 hours/week minimum. The typical schedule runs from Monday through Friday and during the daytime or nighttime. Weekends are free time for interns; therefore, you can do as please (travel, hike, relax). No refunds on food and lodging will be available if the intern decides to leave the station. Projects may sometimes run into the weekend; in which case the days will be returned to them during the week.
The intern supervisor(s) will be responsible for designing a schedule with the intern each week that is reasonable and includes work on the various projects.
We look forward to hearing from you!
The T.R.E.E.S Team
To apply for this job email your details to scruz@treesociety.org