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JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE

中文介绍 Chinese Version

"Every individual matters, human and non-human alike. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.”

- Jane Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall is one of the most prominent figures in the international animal protection community, as well as one of the most legendary women of the 20^th Century. For 40 years, she has worked deep in the continent of Africa studying chimpanzees and contributing to studies at the Gombe Stream Research Centre, the longest unbroken field study of any group of animals in the wild.

Through her study of chimpanzees at Gombe and internationally, Dr. Goodall realized that the uncertain plight of chimpanzees around the world is symptomatic of the threat to our entire planet caused by the inharmonious ways humans treat non-humans in our shared environment. It is this realization that has driven her to tour around the world almost constantly, giving lectures to fund the protection of wildlife and the environment.

While her field study has changed the history of ethnology, her caring devotion, perseverance, intelligence and zeal are what have made her an outstanding individual in the area of animal protection. Years of significant research work have earned her countless distinguished titles and awards, including the Albert Schweitzer Award of the Animal Welfare Institute and the Encyclopaedia Britannica Award for Excellence on the Dissemination of Learning for the Benefit of Mankind.

Jane Goodall Institutes (JGI), are tax-exempt, non-profit organizations, the first of which was founded in 1977 in the US. JGI is committed to: wildlife research and conservation, particularly chimpanzees; the welfare of non-human animals, particularly chimpanzees; and environmental and humanitarian education. The Institutes also facilitate and promote several programs, including the Gombe Stream Research Centre, Sanctuaries, ChimpanZoo and Roots & Shoots programs.

Over the years, JGI has flourished to include enthusiastic staff, interns, teachers and volunteers all throughout the world including Austria, Canada, China, Germany, South Africa, Tanzania, United Kingdom and Uganda.

JGI hopes to promote environmental protection and conservation in China and elsewhere. Besides playing an active role in facilitating communications between environmental protection organizations in and outside China, JGI seeks to provide financial assistance for environmental protection institutions worldwide.

With the enthusiastic combined efforts of people in all countries, JGI hopes to lay a solid foundation for environmental protection and education, so that we may leave an undiminished earth to our children.

In the past 20 years China has focused increasing attention on environmental and wildlife protection. This accomplishment is due to caring individuals and the government joining together to make beneficial changes. Over the past four years, Dr. Goodall has come to China annually to assist China in its promotion of preservation.

In 1996, Dr. Jane Goodall visited Taiwan, aiming at advocating animal protection and helping related institutions promote animal protection locally. In 1997, she made her way back to China, this time to Hong Kong.

In 1998, Dr. Goodall came to Shanghai and Beijing. Aided by TVE International, she visited the Pere David Deer Park in Beijing, where very rare native deer are being reintroduced to China. At the China-Japan Friendship Environmental Protection Centre, she spoke to 400 committed Chinese and foreign conservationists. She also met with school children who enthusiastically requested autographs and was interviewed by many media groups.

 Back by popular demand, Dr. Goodall once again visited Shanghai and Beijing in 1999, making many public appearances and meeting with schools, government administrators and the business community. During this time, she visited the Beijing Normal University at the invitation of Friends of Nature, spoke to Roots & Shoots programs at Western Academy Beijing and Beijing International School, and got together with the children’s group, “Hand in Hand for the Earth”. Hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce, she also spoke to Beijing’s foreign business community. The Vice Administrator of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) also met with Dr. Goodall and expressed SEPA’s appreciation for her concern as well as its support for her endeavors in China. The Chinese media again responded to photograph and interview the popular Dr. Goodall.

Each of these visits has left deep impressions on the many individuals who came into contact with Dr. Goodall. JGI’s efforts to assist in China are a direct consequence of the outpouring of goodwill surrounding her visits and the awareness she promotes.

Some 150 chimpanzees live in Tanzania’s 30 square-mile Gombe National Park, which are studied by field researchers under Dr. Goodall’s direction. Field research and conservation education play vital roles in preserving wild chimpanzees and vanishing habitats.

At the turn of the century, between one and two million chimpanzees lived in the forests of twenty-five African nations. Today, their number has dwindled to less than 250,000 in West and Central Africa. Major reasons for this rapid decline are habitat destruction and the bushmeat trade. In addition, females are killed simply to capture their infants for the pet trade, entertainment or biomedical research. To stop such trade, government agents must confiscate illegally held chimpanzee infants, which seldom happens unless they can be handed over to a refuge which will care for them. Sanctuaries play a key role in JGI’s conservation education programs. Funding from JGI provides care for over 100 chimpanzees and various employment opportunities for local people at six African locations: Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa.

Founded in 1984, ChimpanZoo is an international research program dedicated to the study of chimpanzees in zoos and other captive settings. Approximately 130 chimpanzees are involved in ChimpanZoo, making it the largest ape research program ever undertaken. ChimpanZoo strives to: increase public awareness about the plight of chimpanzees, heighten understanding of chimpanzee behavior, assist zoos in their efforts to improve the habitats and conditions for captive chimpanzees, facilitate the exchange of information on ways to enrich the lives of captive chimpanzees and compile behavioral data for an international database.

“Roots creep underground everywhere and make a firm foundation. Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light they can break through brick walls. Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet. Hundreds and thousands of roots and shoots, and hundred and thousands of young people around the world, can break through these walls. You CAN change the world."

-Jane Goodall

Roots & Shoots is an environmental and humanitarian program for young people - from the kindergarten to university level. It is designed to involve members in hands-on activities that will benefit the environment, non-human animals and the human community. Through this, young people develop self-respect, confidence in themselves and HOPE for the future.

Roots & Shoots began with a group of 16 secondary school students in East Africa and has now grown to over 1,000 registered groups in 50 countries throughout the world. Roots & Shoots enables young people to continue to coordinate projects locally that promote care and concern for the environment, animals and human communities. Through constructive activities, the participants of Roots & Shoots groups all over the world have become more aware of how their actions affect their local community and the environment as a whole. Furthermore, JGI promotes understanding between individuals of different cultures, ethnic groups, socio-economics levels and nations. This teaches young people that their daily actions do truly make a difference to the world around them.

Together, we can and MUST make the world a better place for all living beings.

The Roots & Shoots philosophy of individual participation with which Dr. Goodall has inspired so many people around the world is something JGI seeks to promote in China. Foremost in this is fostering the support of indigenous Roots & Shoots groups throughout China. It is through this means that JGI can not only assist Chinese environmentalists in getting environmental education resources and inspiration through linking them with concerned JGI friends and colleagues worldwide, but also allow each Chinese individual to make his or her own singular contribution.