Jon Ramnarace was a vital teammate and true friend. We at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) had the fortune of seeing his skills, broad knowledge, and wide influence while working with him for six years. Jon brought his gregarious nature, enthusiasm, and technical competency to our conservation programs, supporting many national initiatives intended to help safeguard Belize’s marine and terrestrial resources. These included the national rollout and training of protected area managers and rangers to use specially designed software for patrols. He trained protected area staff to use aerial and underwater drones for monitoring and surveillance. 
He also built and ushered in mobile applications and systems to encourage best practices in buying and selling fish commercially – the Fish Right Eat Right and OurFish apps. Jon was also instrumental in introducing technologies to our neighbors – Honduras, Bahamas, and Jamaica – sharing his expertise and passion. Jon supported the roll-out of a vessel monitoring system with emergency SOS, which is an added way to keep Belize’s fishers safe while at sea.
Jon was a dynamic man with many passions and talents that he readily shared. He was a motorbike enthusiast and professional home chef who hosted family and friends using his home-grown produce, and he had an affinity for carpentry. We saw him as someone always ready to help and never shying away from expressing his opinions. He was a family man, a very proud brother, with husband and father being his most cherished titles.
“The WCS family in Belize and beyond will not forget Jon’s dedication to protecting nature through innovation, his warm personality, and his love for his family. As with many others, we are better for having known him.” – WCS Belize Country Director, Nicole Auil Gomez.
We send our most sincere condolences to the Ramnarace family and friends and pray for healing for all who Jon’s tragic and untimely death has impacted, particularly his wife, Vivian, their dear daughter, and Jon’s two brothers, Kelvin, and Garson.
“For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one,” Khalil Gibran.
Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world’s oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org. Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: 347-840-1242.
For WCS Belize, visit us online at:
Website: https://belize.wcs.org;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCSBelize/;
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WCSBelize/followers;
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wcsbelize.
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