Goodall’s Houston mission: inspire youths
Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, October 18, 2005
By KATLYN STEVENSON Pershing Middle School with C. A. NEILSON
The silence of a quiet Houston morning is broken by the shrill cry of chimpanzee calls. Jane Goodall Ph.D., DBE, world-renowned primatolgist, conservationist and humanitarian has just begun a talk with Houston Zoo personnel by demonstrating chimpanzee sounds.
Goodall was in town Saturday to recognize pupils at local schools, including River Oaks Elementary and Rummel Creek Elementary, for tackling environmental concerns through her program called Roots and Shoots.
More than 200 local school children and educators displayed service projects they have undertaken as part of Roots and Shoots. They are part of a worldwide movement of more than 8,000 programs in 93 countries.
Rummel Creek pupils under the guidance of teacher Becky Rymer developed a butterfly garden, and River Oaks Elementary pupils, under the guidance of Janet Erwin, did several activities, including raising money for Hurricane Katrina, classroom recycling and purchasing 4.4 acres of African rainforest to prevent people from chopping trees.
Goodall explained that the Roots and Shoots program started in Tanzania in 1991 when 16 students gathered on her porch to discuss the state of the environment and were frustrated because their schools didnt cover this topic. The students returned to their schools with the task of finding other interested students and taking action, and Roots and Shoots was born.##M:(full story)##
Goodall says Roots and Shoots is guided by her philosophy that every individual matters, every individual has a role to play, every individual makes a difference." She explained the meaning of its name: Roots make a firm foundation; shoots seem small, but to reach the light they can break apart brick walls. Brick walls are like the bad things that humans have done to the environment.
Especially meaningful to those who are familiar with her documentaries and books, Goodall gave updates on the state of the Gombe National Park in Tanzania. She began her research there as a young woman but now only gets to the site a few times a year.
Although the Gombe reserve is still intact, the surrounding area has been devastated by a fire and the clear-cutting of the land for firewood, she reported. Gombe has experienced a grim period. The Gombe chimps are threatened; there are less than 100. There were 150. Many were moving outside the park but cant anymore.
Goodall says the first groups of chimpanzees and their offspring chimpanzees she knew and studied for 40 years are no longer alive. She said wistfully, There is no Fifi, no Goblin, no Dominic (chimpanzees from her early days of study), no links that connect me to those early days anymore. The people from those days are gone, too. So its a sad feeling. I go to Gombe now to appreciate the peace after living in a big city.
Although Goodall began her career researching chimpanzees, her work has evolved into other areas of ecological concern. The Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation was founded in 1977. Over the years it has expanded from providing support for field research on chimpanzees and protecting their populations to combining efforts in education, community development and conservation.
Another program, TAKARE is a reforestation and conservation project around the Gombe, and ChimpanZoo is an international program dedicated to the study of chimpanzees in zoos and captive settings with an emphasis on enrichment.
She took on TAKARE to improve the lives of those around Gombe with farming and soil erosion education, scholarships for gifted girls and HIV education. Now the villagers are on our side instead of seeing the researchers in Gombe as outsiders, she said. Now they understand. Things are picking up for them. All around the hilly slopes you have tree stumps and women chopping them for firewood. Now TAKARE forests are sprouting up with fast growing trees and TAKARE corridors. Its a beginning and the only hope we have.
She also cited changing practices in the meat trade by Bushmen as a real threat. In the past, Goodall explained, No self-respecting hunter would kill a mother or child; now everything goes, and orphaned chimpanzee babies get sold in the market alive. Its illegal and the government confiscates babies, but they need sanctuaries.
She said Conoco built a sanctuary in the 1990s with 22 orphaned chimps. Now we have over 100. Im often criticized by conservationist about taking care of those instead of those in the wild.
For more information about starting a Roots and Shoots program, visit the Web site, located at www.rootsandshoots.org.