Environmental Champion Jane Goodall Calls for Individual Responsibility

Jane Goodall is a British primatologist who perhaps is best known for her work with chimpanzees. She has spent many years studying their behaviour in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park. However, Ms Goodall is also a UN Messenger of Peace and according to her website she spends over 300 days a year on the road. She travels to and from events where she meets and encourages people of all ages, from school children to officials, to improve the environment. Most recently, Ms Goodall visited Brussels to attend the Belgian Roots & Shoots Ceremony which took place at the European Parliament on Wednesday 8 May.

Roots & Shoots is a programme that was set up by Ms Goodall in Tanzania to encourage young people to make a difference to their surroundings by helping people, animals and the environment. Beginning in 1991 with 12 high school students, Roots & Shoots has spread across the world and today is present in 135 countries. 

“I started it because I was meeting young people around the world who seemed not to have much hope for the future and they were either depressed or angry or mostly apathetic. They basically said we feel this way because you’ve compromised our future and there’s nothing we can do about it,” explained Ms Goodall. “Well we have compromised the future of our young people, we’re still compromising it, but I don’t believe it’s too late to make a difference.”

In response to these student’s frustrations, Roots & Shoots teaches young people that every individual matters and that they can make a difference every single day. Members range from pre-school children all the way up to university students and Ms Goodall noted that in fact “more and more adults are taking part.”With the aim of making positive change happen, participants in the programme work in groups on three projects of their choosing. The only instruction that they receive is that one project has to help people, one animals and one the environment.

Projects are registered and shared online; however, Ms Goodall explained that the programme aims to bring groups together as often as possible so that they can meet in order to share their work, enthusiasm and problems, for example, the event at the European Parliament gathering Roots & Shoots Belgium. Supported by two MEPs, Mrs. Silvana Koch-Mehrin and Mrs. Catherine Bearder, it united students age 6 to 22 from local Belgian and international schools. The students presented their projects to each other, and then received certificates from Ms. Goodall.

In a press statement released shortly before the event, Mrs Koch-Mehrin noted that she was “delighted that Jane Goodall visits us in the European Parliament once again. Her interaction with children is impressive; she inspires them and opens minds and eyes to the importance of individual action.”

Roots & Shoots is very close to Ms. Goodall’s heart. Preferring to describe it as a movement as opposed to a programme, she believes that it is making a difference all over the world: “it’s making a huge difference to inner-city children helping them to understand a bit more about the natural world; it’s making a huge difference to children living in poverty, because they’re learning that even though they’re living in poverty their lives matter and that’s important to them, it empowers them to go on and better their situation.”

Speaking about her feelings on the current state of the environment and wildlife today, at one point Ms Goodall stated “we really have made a mess of this planet.”As concerns about global warming and climate change have moved to the centre stage in policy, research and even the media in recent years, it is it is hard to disagree with her. 

At the age of 79 and despite a medical condition with her eyes, Ms Goodall continues to work hard to promote her cause. Often seen wearing sunglasses indoors as bright, particularly artificial, lights hurt her eyes, she is currently writing the introduction to several books by other authors, as well as finishing her own latest book, due for release later this year. 

You can find more information about the Roots & Shoots event at the European Parliament and Roots & Shoots in Belgium on the Jane Goodall Institute Belgium website’s blog.

This collaborative piece was drafted with input from Ilke Pedersen-Beyst (President and Executive Director of the Jane Goodall Institute Belgium), with support from the capacity4dev.eu Coordination Team.