Browsing: Notes From the Field

The Gombe-Masito-Ugalla ecosystem is home to more than 90% of Tanzania’s estimated 2,200 chimpanzees—a population that is facing increasing threats due to habitat loss and population fragmentation, disease, and illegal wild meat and wildlife trade. Underlying these threats, the drivers of human inequities and challenges deplete natural resources and expand unsustainable land-use practices. In response, JGI’s Landscape Conservation in Western Tanzania (LCWT) project uses JGI’s Tacare community-led conservation approach to support and work in partnership with local communities to tackle the drivers of these challenges. This in turn protects endangered chimpanzee populations and safeguards their habitat through effective land-use planning,…

There are special places in this world that have changed the course of history. Places that defined an era, a belief, or an understanding; ultimately such places shape the trajectory of our own understanding. Amid the steep mountainsides, within a dense forest in western Tanzania, is such a place: Gombe National Park. It was there that a young, curious observer witnessed behaviors that would challenge the very fundamentals of what defined humans. That observer, Dr. Jane Goodall, would conduct unprecedented and highly influential research ultimately becoming one of the most well-known scientists of our time. In August 2022, I had…