Author: Pamela Huber

In an average day at the office, Dr. Rebeca Atencia may be checking the vital signs of a sick chimpanzee, observing a chimp group’s acclimation to its new island home, or developing an education campaign to decrease the illegal trade of primates. Atencia serves as the Executive Director of the Jane Goodall Institute in the Congo and the Manager and Head Veterinarian at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center. Atencia, who began as a veterinarian at Tchimpounga, just recently completed defending her Ph.D. thesis in Chimpanzee Physiology, officially making her a doctor. She spent several years expanding her knowledge of chimpanzee cardiology…

Hopefully, you already know that recycling your old electronic devices helps mitigate conflict over minerals in the chimpanzee habitat of the Congo Basin. If you don’t, you can get a more in-depth explanation in our blog post, Why You Should Recycle Your Cell Phone. For those ready to take action but not quite sure how, this is the post for you. On January 26, 2016, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) will celebrate its second annual International Mobile Phone Recycling Day. The day is a “Call to Action,” shared by all of the JGI offices around the globe — many which have been…

Most smartphones today would not exist without natural resources extracted from endangered habitats such as those of the Congo Basin. That is because the metals and minerals that make them work are very rare and can be found primarily in this region – an area with one of the largest intact populations of wild chimpanzees. In an effort to control the wealth brought in from these minerals, over five million people have died. In order to protect the Congo Basin’s people and its chimpanzees, we as consumers must understand the source of our cell phone’s conflict minerals and how we…

For a long time, chimpanzees rescued and sent to sanctuaries had no chance of returning to the wild. The odds were against them the longer they grew accustomed to personalized care at the hands of humans. And upon reintroduction into the wild, any wild populations would likely attack and possibly kill the strange, introduced foreigners. But this is changing. Researchers at JGI’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Congo are researching methods and places to reintroduce rescued chimpanzees into the wild, in part by studying the successful reintroductions of other primates such as mandrills. In the meantime, Tchimpounga…

As 2015 draws to a close, we at the Jane Goodall Institute would like to reflect on all of the incredible things that have happened over the year. Below see our top ten moments from 2015. Click on the page numbers below to browse our top moments from 2015.

Watch the video above to see Jane’s message about the fires in Indonesia. Indonesia continues to experience dangerous forest fires across the country, with over 100,000 active fires detected in 2015. The fires have been raging since September and are now releasing more emissions daily than the entire U.S. economy. In the past three weeks alone, Indonesia has produced more carbon dioxide than Germany does in an entire year. People and animals are at risk, with one-third of the world’s remaining orangutan population in peril. Dr. Jane Goodall and her fellow Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) ambassadors issued a joint…

Dr. Jane Goodall urges JGI members, Roots & Shoots youth and all environmental stewards to participate in the November 29 Global March for Climate in order to show politicians around the world that they care about acting on climate change. The Global March for Climate is a worldwide event with marches already planned in nearly 60 cities. The marches, which begin the weekend of November 28th, will continue for two weeks up until the end of the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21), which runs from November 30 to December 11. World leaders are converging on Paris for COP21 in order…

The Jane Goodall Institute’s Gombe Masito-Ugalla program (GMU), paves the way for Tanzanian business owners and entrepreneurs to improve their livelihoods. The GMU program provides education on ways to improve the production process of farmers, whether they grow crops, care for livestock, embrace agroforestry or manage beehives. One particular program which the GMU program is proud to support is the Kanyovu Coffee Cooperative Society, a consortium of 12 different coffee collectives. The Kanyovu Coffee Cooperative Society supports over 7,600 coffee farmers looking to improve their sustainable livelihoods. By supporting Kanyovu, JGI provides technical knowledge of farming skills such as farm…

Water is the most vital substance on our planet. It flows from rivers to oceans, irrigating farmland along the way, brings oxygen into the gills of fish, nourishes all living things and becomes breathable oxygen in the cells of plants.The water cycle determines the abundance of crops from year to year, the devastation of mudslides and hurricanes and the annual floods of wet seasons that ecosystems evolved to rely on over thousands of years. Water is a tiny polar molecule made of one hydrogen and two oxygen atoms – and it is the most valuable resource on Earth for humans,…

Our sustainable livelihood programs that promote the UN’s Goal 8 also work towards Goal 12, to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” Through land-use planning, the promotion of innovative sustainable livelihoods and environmental education programs, JGI works towards the UN goal of achieving sustainable use and management of natural resources for all and the environmental education for all on sustainable development and lifestyles by 2030. Environmental education is the backbone of all of JGI’s initiatives. Whether we are educating village members around key primate habitat about the limits of their natural resource availability or we are teaching young people all…