Author: Ashley Sullivan

Individual change can lead to meaningful impact within communities, throughout nations, and across the globe. In Western Tanzania, where JGI has supported and advanced a unique form of community-led conservation, known as ‘Tacare,’ for over 30 years, innovations in influencing positive behavior change have had striking results. Our ongoing efforts through the Landscape Conservation in Western Tanzania (LCWT) program funded by USAID centered on composting is a case study in how a small shift in agricultural practices can have cascading benefits for communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. The exciting new addition of the Behavior Change Campaign (BCC) uses innovative techniques to…

The Jane Goodall Institute’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center provides shelter and care for over 140 chimpanzees whose families fell victim to the illegal wildlife trade. Divided among eight age-related areas, and three forested islands, every chimpanzee at Tchimpounga receives individualized attention from a group of over 50 staff and caregivers. Every rescued chimpanzee at Tchimpounga has a unique personality, bringing fun, joy, and hope to their adoptive family. Learn more about three of them below, and stay tuned for stories about other members of this very special community.  Lemba 2021 was a very eventful year for Lemba. Lemba lives with…

Dr. Jane Goodall started Roots & Shoots in 1991 after hearing local students in Tanzania express their feelings of powerlessness to address the problems in the world around them. In the 30 years since, Roots & Shoots has grown into the world’s foremost youth empowerment movement, and millions of participants have worked around the globe to benefit people, other animals, and the environment we all share. Dr. Goodall knows that every person has the power to effect change no matter how large the obstacle may seem, and this belief has become more relevant than ever in the face of the…

It’s HERE! A brand-new book titled ‘Local Voices, Local Choices: The Tacare Approach to Community-Led Conservation’ chronicles the stories behind Dr. Jane Goodall’s holistic approach to conservation. For nearly 30 years, JGI’s innovative community-led conservation approach known as ‘Tacare’ – developed by pioneering scientist and activist Dr. Jane Goodall – has been developing holistic solutions to the complex problems driving conservation challenges by putting local people and institutions at the center. Chimpanzees, other great apes, and their habitats are endangered – at a population of millions just 100 years ago, their numbers could be less than 300,000 in the wild. Without…

Worldwide, gender-based educational gaps in countries like Tanzania are typically caused by financial or other social barriers, including poverty and lack of reproductive healthcare access. When girls are given access to education, the whole community benefits for years to come and conservation threats are diminished. That’s why JGI has been providing scholarships to girls in Tanzania since 1998. In 2020, the Girls Scholarship Program sponsored 40 scholarships for high-achieving young women and girls attending secondary and post-secondary academic programs. JGI visited 15 schools last year to monitor and evaluate student performance, see their accommodations, and discuss any challenges that the…

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged each of us in ways that we couldn’t have expected; schools were shut down, programs were canceled, and young people everywhere had to find new ways of standing up together for what they believe in. We are so proud of our Roots & Shoots members for showing their adaptability during these strange times by continuing to create positive impact in their communities. That’s the incredible power of hope—it keeps us moving forward, even when the light at the end of the tunnel seems impossible to reach. One achievement we are really proud of from the past year was updating the Roots & Shoots website! The…

Kisinza Mzee Ibrahim is a 48-year-old single mother of two and a resident of Kalalangabo village in western Tanzania. She is also a volunteer community health worker (CHW) with LCWT. Like many in Kalalangabo, Ibrahim is a fishmonger at the village market. Fish sellers often struggle during low catch seasons and face financial difficulties due to lack of sustainable financing mechanisms for their businesses. In Western Tanzania, JGI has been using microcredit COCOBA (community conservation banking) groups for several years to support community credit systems that invest in sustainable alternative livelihoods. This program is vital for people like Ibrahim to…

Following in our founder’s footsteps, the Jane Goodall Institute has always acted based on the knowledge that people, non-human animals, and the environment are connected. Our approach to conservation is community-led, which means that we work with local communities to empower sustainable development and conservation decision-making, which improves well-being for people, the environment, and wildlife.  Across the chimpanzee range, JGI is working with communities to develop solutions that are individualized to the threats facing them and their areas. Guinea and Burundi are two examples of how very different approaches can provide new steps forward in the effort to better understand effective conservation tactics, and…

Deforestation for agriculture is the biggest threat to chimpanzee habitat in the western Tanzanian landscape. Through the USAID-funded Landscape Conservation in Western Tanzania project (LCWT), JGI focuses on finding sustainable alternatives to agricultural forest-clearing for farmers. Riverine forests in the region are a critical habitat for chimpanzees, other biodiversity, and healthy watersheds. Since low soil fertility is one of the key drivers of agricultural incursions into riverine forests, composting was identified as an appropriate way to build soil health in plots outside of forested areas at low cost.   In Fall 2020, JGI offered a compost training that emphasized lessons on soil fertility…

At the 2020 World Economic Forum, Dr. Goodall announced her commitment to the Trillion Tree campaign of UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) of contributing five million trees (by protection, planting, and/or restoration) through JGI and partnerships. From forests to the individual tree, plants are the “root” of our planet’s health and survival. Trees and other plants have the power to draw down from our atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2), a heat-trapping gas released through human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation. By trapping CO2, forests and green spaces can be one of our greatest solutions in fighting climate change (U.S. Forest Service).…