Miss Earth Belize Shares Passion for Environmental Activism

Belize’s new Miss Earth is taking more than beauty and confidence to the international stage. Twenty-five-year-old Vashti Thompson, a trained biologist and community officer with the National Biodiversity Office, captured the Miss Earth Belize crown on Saturday night. In November, she will represent Belize at Miss Earth 2026 in the Philippines, where she plans to spotlight issues close to home, including plastic pollution, human-wildlife conflict, and the need for stronger environmental education.

 

Vashti Thompson, Miss Earth Belize

“Miss Earth is an environmentally conscious pageant, and it has value within being an advocate for our environment, which is something that I already do and embody day-to-day. So I work at the National Biodiversity office as their community officer. So every day, my job is to go into communities and try to educate and encourage people to take care of our natural resources. So it’s really something that I’m true to, so I believe this pageant aligned with my values more than any other pageant. I do believe that the biggest issue we have is lack of education, because if we really think about it, we have human-wildlife conflict, we have the plastic pollution problem, and all of those things can be addressed if people are better informed. Like right now, DOE has a Bin It campaign, but the people, the general public don’t know about it. And recently in the news, we had a issue with the jaguar being touched, the baby jaguar. That could have been prevented had people known about the Wildlife Protection Act, which you can be charged up to $10,000 for messing with wildlife. So we need better education. The public needs to know this, not just environmentalists, not just scientists, everyone.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Talk to me about how you feel now that you’ve been crowned  Miss Earth Belize. What was that moment like?”

 

Vashti Thompson

“It was honestly so surreal. When they called my name, I burst into tears because it really made me feel that every sacrifice, all the late nights, all the early mornings were worth it. And as happy as I am, I am carrying the crown with pride because I’m going to represent my country on an international stage, but I do know that it is a huge responsibility, and I know there’s a lot of people watching me, so I have to be a good role model.”

 

Thompson is set to travel to the Philippines in November, where she will spend a month with fellow environmentally conscious delegates from around the world, and represent Belize on the international stage.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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