Free
Imagine never stopping to work at your job, no matter how long you have been at it or how old you are.
This describes Jane Goodall “to a T.” Speaking out and writing, she continued to work toward her goals for chimpanzees and conservation long after most people would have stopped working altogether.
▲ Goodall began her study of chimpanzees in 1960 at Gombe Stream Game Reserve (now Gombe Stream National Park). Five years later, Gombe Stream Research Center was founded. The work there has never stopped, making it among the longest field studies of a specific type of animal in history. Scientists at the center study chimpanzees. They observe their behavior and their relationships. They also study their development and their social structure. One study involved observing chimpanzee twins over a long period of time.
▲ This is an aerial view of Gombe National Park. It shows the amount of deforestation that has taken place. This phenomenon led Goodall to change the focus of her attention from scientific field research of chimpanzees to conservation. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute. The institute works to preserve the habitats of chimps and other species throughout the world. It embraces the important part people play in the well-being of the environment and the animals that live there. In Goodall’s words, “every single one of us matters, every single one of us has a role to play, and every single one of us makes a difference every single day.”
▲ Goodall wrote many books. Some are for adults. And some are for children. One of them, The Chimpanzee Family Book, received the UNICEF/UNESCO Children’s Book of the Year Award in 1989. The award is given every two years to works that express “tolerance and peace and promote mutual understanding based on respect for other peoples and cultures.” Goodall used the prize money she received to have her book translated into other languages. They include Swahili, French, and other languages spoken in Africa. Her goal was to help educate children who live in or near areas where chimpanzees also live.
▲ In 1991, Goodall met with a group of teenagers. They were concerned about problems in their community in Tanzania. Goodall was impressed with their compassion and desire to find solutions. That’s when she founded Roots & Shoots as part of the Jane Goodall Institute. Since its founding, Roots & Shoots has grown to be a worldwide program. It is active in more than 100 countries. Participants in each country use their own ideas to create programs that help their region’s people, animals, and the environment.
Kids all over the world come up with Roots & Shoots projects. The projects may be about protecting monarch butterflies or another species. Or about conservation or composting. The project shown here is called Chimp Enrichment Edible Necklaces. It is aimed at chimps who have been thrown out of research projects and entertainment or abandoned as pets. They live in the Freedom for Great Apes sanctuary in Bend, Oregon. During the course of the project, participants strung dried fruit on natural fiber as enrichment for the chimps’ diet. They also studied the chimps at the sanctuary and “discovered that they each have their own personalities and own tragic stories.” ▶
In 2017, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation. Its purpose is to create, build, and manage funds that support programs like Roots & Shoots. Goodall created the foundation to “enable the programs I have developed to continue, and new ones to be initiated, so that the fight to make a better world for people, animals, and the environment may carry on beyond my lifetime.”
▲ Goodall received the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication in 2022. The award recognizes exceptional ability to communicate science through television, films, books, and talks. These are some of Goodall’s comments upon receiving the award.
From the beginning I vowed I wouldn’t succumb to scientific jargon. For example . . . in articles I published . . . everywhere I’d written ‘he’ or ’she,’ it had been scratched out [by the editors] and replaced with ’it.’ I scratched out the ’it’s’ and underlined the ’he’s’ and ’she’s.’ I also decided that I wouldn’t write anything that couldn’t be understood by an intelligent 14-year-old.
▲ Goodall traveled extensively – about 300 days a year. She spoke about environmental matters and threats facing chimpanzees. Her participation in many events was as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. UN Messengers of Peace help focus attention on the work of the United Nations. Goodall was named a Messenger of Peace in 2002 for helping to bring attention to environmental protection by addressing issues such as deforestation, animal welfare, climate change, and more.
Think Piece!
Why do you think Jane Goodall continued to work on behalf of conservation and the chimpanzees? What might be something you would want to continue doing over a very long period of time?
Jane Goodall passed away on October 1, 2025. She leaves behind a legacy of fearlessness, wisdom, and strength as well as thousands dedicated to carrying on the work she so courageously began.
