In a moment that blended beauty pageantry with on-the-ground conservation work, 25-year-old biologist Vashti Thompson claimed the title of Miss Earth Belize on Saturday, August 8, 2026, bringing her years of frontline environmental advocacy to an upcoming international platform.
A community officer at Belize’s National Biodiversity Office, Thompson is not new to the work she will champion at the global Miss Earth 2026 competition. Scheduled for November 2026 in the Philippines, the competition will gather hundreds of environmentally focused delegates from across the globe, and Thompson will spend a month collaborating with fellow advocates before representing Belize in the final event. For her, the pageant is far more than a ceremonial title: it is a natural extension of the daily work she has carried out for years, aligning perfectly with her core personal and professional values.
“Every day, my job is to go into communities and try to educate and encourage people to take care of our natural resources,” Thompson explained in a post-coronation interview. Unlike other pageantry competitions, she noted, Miss Earth’s explicit focus on environmental stewardship makes it a perfect fit for her lifelong commitment to conservation.
Thompson identifies widespread gaps in public environmental education as the root of many of Belize’s most pressing ecological challenges, including rampant plastic pollution and growing human-wildlife conflict. She points to recent high-profile incidents to illustrate this gap: just weeks before her coronation, a viral incident involving unauthorized handling of a jaguar cub sparked public outcry. Thompson argues the encounter could have been avoided entirely if more Belizeans were aware of the Wildlife Protection Act, which carries fines of up to $10,000 for unauthorized interaction with protected wildlife. Even existing government initiatives, she adds, struggle to cut through to the general public: the Department of the Environment’s ongoing ‘Bin It’ anti-litter campaign has gained little traction outside of environmental circles, a problem she aims to fix by expanding outreach.
For Thompson, the coronation moment was a culmination of months of intense sacrifice, including weeks of late nights and early mornings balancing pageant preparation with her full-time conservation job. When her name was called as the new Miss Earth Belize, she broke into tears, overwhelmed by the validation of her years of work. Now, she carries the crown with a mix of pride and deliberate humility, recognizing the weight of the responsibility that comes with representing her nation’s environmental movement on a global stage.
As she prepares for her trip to the Philippines, Thompson remains focused on her core goal: lifting up local Belizean environmental challenges to a global audience, and building momentum for broader public education that empowers all Belizeans, not just scientists and activists, to protect the country’s unique natural heritage.