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Sustainability & Conservation at Blancaneaux Lodge

Francis and Eleanor Coppola have always seen their role as conservators of the forest Blancaneaux sits in. That shows up in three places: how the lodge runs, how it looks after the Mountain Pine Ridge around it, and how it supports the villages of the Cayo District.

How we run

Most of the lodge’s power, about 85%, comes from a hydroelectric plant on Privassion Creek, run and serviced in-house for over a decade; the rest is butane. The creek also supplies the water, treated before it reaches the rooms. Guests can take a complimentary tour of the system.

  • The pool runs on saltwater instead of chlorine.
  • Haiku fans, which draw a third of the power of a standard fan, cool the dwellings, and 95% of the lighting is LED.
  • Single-use plastic is gone. Guests carry refillable steel bottles filled at filter stations around the property, and one US dollar from every bottle sold goes to Friends for Conservation. Takeaway packaging is corn-based; straws are metal or bamboo.
  • Greywater is filtered and reused to irrigate the gardens; kitchen scraps and used cooking oil become compost and biofuel.
  • Wood comes from a supplier that replants at harvest, the furniture is built in-house, and toiletries are local, organic, and refilled rather than thrown out.

The forest and the garden

  • The 4-acre organic garden grows most of what the kitchen serves. The head gardener will walk you through the beds, and an evening on the farm ends with a garden-grown dinner in the palapa. You can meet the chickens.
  • Bees kept on site pollinate the garden and the forest around it, and guests can visit the hives.
  • Worm compost, begun with four pounds of worms in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, now yields close to a thousand pounds of compost for the seedlings.
  • After bark beetles devastated the pine forest reserve in 2000, we began replanting. Guests plant pine and mahogany seedlings tagged with their names, and we send photos as they grow.
  • We donate annually to the Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic, which treats injured wildlife, and guests can give directly.

Supporting the Cayo District

  • We fund full academic scholarships for students in San Ignacio, covering tuition, fees, and books through graduation.
  • Through Pack for a Purpose, guests bring school supplies, from notebooks to laptops, often delivering them to the schools themselves.
  • We make a monthly donation to the Cornerstone Foundation’s feeding program for children and elders in need, and visit local schools to teach flora, fauna, and recycling.
  • Each week brings a local artist or musician to the lodge, with painting, guitar, and Spanish classes open to guests.
  • Before Earth Day each year, the team runs a cleanup of the Mountain Pine Ridge road, weighed and recorded, a tradition now more than fifteen years old.

The Belize Community Fund

Much of this is powered by the Belize Community Fund. A small contribution is added to each stay, pooled across our two Belize lodges and given in full to local organizations, from school projects and scholarships to wildlife care and community feeding programs. Guests can speak to the concierge to learn more about these charities or to arrange a visit to one of the organizations they support.