Author: Jane Goodall

Archbishop Tutu died aged  90 on 26th December.  To my great regret I never got the chance to speak to him, though I closely followed his extraordinary career, and listened to his speeches and interviews when I could. He was appointed a priest in 1960 – the year that I first set foot in Capetown, South Africa. My excitement on finally arriving was tempered by the signs that I saw everywhere – translated from the Afrikaans  “slegs blanke” they read “white people only.”  I wasn’t brought up to judge people on the colour of there skin. From the very first, Desmond Tutu stood…

With the passing of Dr. Shirley McGreal the primates have lost a true friend, and conservation has lost a true hero. I remember when I first met Shirley – years and years ago! – and went to visit the gibbons she had rescued in South Carolina. Starting with her love for gibbons, Shirley built up the gibbon sanctuary, and founded her organization IPPL that has made a difference to thousands of primates and also to the many people working to conserve them in different parts of the world. Shirley was compassionate, passionate, committed – and courageous. She was not afraid…

11th September, 2021. In the UK we would write 11.9.21. With a jolt I have just realized that this can also be written 9.11.21 Today, I am feeling a bit shaken – shaken with memories. I was in New York at the Roger Smith Hotel, on the corner of 47th and Lexington on that fateful day. I had arrived, the night before, from a glorious event in celebrating Earth Day in Vermont, surrounded by trees, with Paul Winter playing the clarinet. I woke to start a couple of days of promotion for a new book – a promotion that never…

Steve Clemons: My final guest for the afternoon ventured to Gombe, Tanzania at the age of 26, and began her now famous study of chimpanzees in the wild. In addition to being the founder of her non-profit, the Jane Goodall Institute, she’s a U.N. Messenger of Peace, and a dame commander of the British empire. Big welcome to Dr. Jane Goodall. Dr. Goodall, we’re sitting here, and I should say you’ve been tireless on saying this message for as long as I’ve heard you, which is most of my life. I heard you last, personally, at the World Economic Forum…

Dr. Goodall’s statement: I was shocked and saddened to hear that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has planned to delist gray wolves from North America from the endangered species list. I’m not a biologist who studied wolves, although I have met many who have. I have seen wolves with my own eyes in Yellowstone National Park and I have always loved them. As a child, I read about them. They’re an iconic species of the American landscape and they play an extremely vital role in the ecosystem where they live. And this was shown very clearly when wolves were…

Written testimony of Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works September 23, 2020 Today, as the Environment and Public Works committee discusses proposed amendments to the Endangered Species Act, I am grateful to have this opportunity to affirm my passionate support for the ESA. The ESA has saved many species of animals and plants from being lost forever. We are already in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction, and it is essential that we protect this legislation. We are part of and not separate from the…

As Dr. Goodall travels nearly 300 days a year all around the globe spreading her message of hope and the importance of individual action, she rarely has time for pause. This past week she had a moment to do so at her home in Bournemouth, England, where she shared this message with the staff of the Jane Goodall Institute. We hope you are inspired by her words as much as we are! Merry Christmas/Hanukah & Happy New Year! I am sharing two pictures this year. The first, the drawing by Fernando Turmo, photographer, illustrator and filmmaker of our Tchimpounga Sanctuary,…

I still cannot believe that I shall never again see Dr. Reginald Mengi. I did not meet him very often, but the power of his personality, his charisma and his kindness was such that I soon felt I had known, admired and loved him for years. No wonder he inspired so many young people in Tanzania. We met for the first time in 1993, soon after Roots & Shoots was founded in Tanzania. I had been invited to the 100th birthday celebration of Dr. Albert Schweitzer at the UN in New York – and told that I could bring an international group of young people. And that all their expenses –…

While my main area of expertise is primates – and I note that both Gorillas and Chimpanzees are now listed on the Appendices to CMS – so meet the Convention’s definition of a migratory species – I am also fascinated by birds – which are almost all much, much smaller than Gorillas and Chimpanzees. But what they lack in size, they more than make up for in terms of the intrepid journeys that they undertake on their annual migrations. These migrations are feats of endurance and require great navigational skills – some innate others learned.  The Arctic tern, Sterna paradisaea has…

Today’s U.N. report provides a stark warning – we humans are threatening all life on Planet Earth with extinction: up to 1 million plant and animal species are at risk and many may disappear within decades. Every species has a role to play in the tapestry of life and if we do not protect this biodiversity, if we continue over-consuming and wasting natural resources, the tapestry will gradually fall apart. This, of course, is what scientists have been predicting for years and what I have been speaking about in every lecture. So – is there any hope? Only if we…