For nearly six decades, the area of Western Tanzania surrounding Gombe National Park has been home base for much of Dr. Goodall’s research and the work of the Jane Goodall Institute. This work has always sought to build community and integrate conservation with the needs of local people. This week, this region, known to the Institute as the Gombe Masito Ugalla ecosystem was designated as an official Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) along with 23 other sites around the world. According to UNESCO these reserves reconcile biodiversity conservation with human activity through the use…
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After years of planning and wishing, today we finally announce the creation of the FIRST EVER World Chimpanzee Day to be celebrated on this July 14th, 2018! The Jane Goodall Institute global network of chapters and Roots & Shoots Offices celebrates World Chimpanzee Day, along with many other NGOs and individuals around the globe, in honor of the day in 1960 when our founder, Dr. Jane Goodall, first stepped foot in what is now Gombe Stream National Park to study wild chimpanzees. The day will be a celebration of our closest living relatives and all we know and continue to learn…
Below are excerpts from a digital journal being kept by Rick Asselta, a JGI volunteer and friend of Jane Goodall’s, chronicling the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Rick is credited as one of the earliest Roots & Shoots mentors having collaborated with Jane and others on the development of the program in the early 1990s. Rick and his wife, Nelly, established a robust Roots & Shoots network in Connecticut before they moved to Puerto Rico where they continue to share Jane’s message with local youth and Rick serves as the volunteer coordinator of Roots & Shoots Caribbean. This is Part 3 of…
Below are excerpts from a digital journal being kept by Rick Asselta, a JGI volunteer and friend of Jane Goodall’s, chronicling the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Rick is credited as one of the earliest Roots & Shoots mentors having collaborated with Jane and others on the development of the program in the early 1990s. Rick and his wife, Nelly, established a robust Roots & Shoots network in Connecticut before they moved to Puerto Rico where they continue to share Jane’s message with local youth and Rick serves as the volunteer coordinator of Roots & Shoots Caribbean. This is Part 1 of…
Below are excerpts from a digital journal being kept by Rick Asselta, a JGI volunteer and friend of Jane Goodall’s, chronicling the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Rick is credited as one of the earliest Roots & Shoots mentors having collaborated with Jane and others on the development of the program in the early 1990s. Rick and his wife, Nelly, established a robust Roots & Shoots network in Connecticut before they moved to Puerto Rico where they continue to share Jane’s message with local youth and Rick serves as the volunteer coordinator of Roots & Shoots Caribbean. This is Part 2 of…
I was profoundly shocked when I heard that Wayne Lotter, co-founder of PAMS Foundation, and known for his courageous fight against poaching of wildlife, had been shot and killed earlier this week in the Masaki district of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Wayne was a hero of mine, a hero to many, someone who devoted his life to protecting Africa’s wildlife. As a young man, he served as a ranger in his native South Africa before moving to East Africa to fight poaching, especially elephant poaching in Tanzania. It was in 2009 that he teamed up with Krissie Clark and Ally Namangaya to form the…
Across the continent of Africa, wildlife sanctuaries are working hard to better the lives of their native animals. From improving electrical lines to protect monkeys from accidental electrocution to educating communities about the misconceptions of traditional medicine using ape bones, the responsibilities of a sanctuary extend well beyond helping injured and orphaned animals. While each sanctuary faces unique trials, having a means to communicate and share knowledge of successes and challenges with one another can save each sanctuary effort and resources. This is where the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) comes in. Founded in 2000, PASA is a non-profit charity…
In a single fateful moment (not unique to the series of serendipitous meetings and events of Dr. Jane Goodall’s life), Jane flew over Tanzania and saw that the sacred forest home of the world famous chimps of Gombe was on the verge of disappearing entirely. The Jane Goodall Institute, founded by Jane 40 years ago, took a turn with her realization: the organization would initiate TACARE, a program supporting communities around Lake Tanganyika while addressing rapid degradation of the natural resources, prevent logging, damaging forms of agriculture, illegal bushmeat hunting and other harmful practices. However, this was only part of the…
When I heard that Robert had left us, I found it hard to believe. For it marks the passing of an era, the era of the first great early ethologists, Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Fritz, Niko Tinbergen, Robert’s supervisor, David Lack – and Robert Hinde himself. It is not my intention to write about the huge influence Robert’s work had on ethology, psychology and other branches of science: only on the way he impacted my own career, and the development of the Gombe Stream Research Centre. When, in 1962, Louis Leakey secured me a place in Cambridge University to work…
It was a great honour for me to be a United Nations Messenger of Peace along with Elie Wiesel. Having survived the horrors of the Nazi death camps that killed his father, and almost killed him, it would be understandable if thoughts of hatred and a desire for revenge had coloured the rest of his life. Instead he spoke, along with Nelson Mandela, of the need for forgiveness. I heard him speak twice to the young people of different nationalities gathered on International Day of Peace at the UN headquarters in New York. And on both occasions they listened with…