News published: 08 April 2024

BGCI received the sad news that Judy duPlooy, Director of the Belize Botanic Garden, has passed away on 7^th April, 2024.  She had battled illness bravely for some years. 

Over the last decades, Judy put huge energy into creating and building the Belize Botanic Garden, which she and her late husband Ken founded when they moved with their family to Belize in the late 1987.  Judy and Ken established a new business on a farm they purchased near the town of San Ignacio in western Belize.  duPlooy’s Jungle Lodge opened 9 months after their arrival.  They continued to plant trees and restored the land and landscapes on their property, laid out a network of trails, and expanded the botanic garden to its current 45 acres.  All of their work at the Garden and in the business followed the best principles of sustainability, which they embraced enthusiastically.  Ken passed away in August 2001, but Judy continued the work they had started together, and with great determination and ingenuity to further developed the botanic garden.  Judy sold the Jungle Lodge in 2018 so that she could focus on building the sustainability of the botanic garden.  Today it has grown to be one of the most important botanic gardens in Central America and the Caribbean, with major collections of native and exotic plant species (such as a collection of over 120 orchid species, native palms and many fruit trees). It has become established as an important national institution and presenting exceptional educational programmes, focused on horticultural training, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, plant diversity and conservation. 

Judy was always an enthusiastic supporter of BGCI and hosted several important botanic garden conferences and meetings for the region.  In the 1990s, Judy was a founder of the first Caribbean botanic gardens network – Caribbean Botanic Gardens for Conservation – which convened several of the first ever botanic garden conferences in the Caribbean region, the second of which was held at the Belize Botanic Garden in 2005.  This network has now grown to become the Caribbean and Central American Botanic Garden Network, which organizes the regular Botanical Bridges Congresses.

Judy is survived by her daughters, Patricia, Heather, Shayla, Lorna and Stephanie, sons-in-law and grandchildren.  BGCI sends its sincere condolences to Judy’s family and friends.  She will also be missed greatly by her many close friends in the botanic garden community and by the devoted staff of the Belize Botanic Garden.