This Is How Jane Goodall Fights for the Natural World

Sixty years ago, Jane Goodall first set foot in Gombe, Tanzania as a young researcher. The renowned, now-86-year-old primatologist, ethologist, environmentalist, and United Nations Messenger of Peace has never let up on her passion for learning about the lives of the region’s chimpanzees and sharing her knowledge with the world.

She has also never let up in her decades-long quest to call the world’s attention to the urgency of rebuilding our natural world and slowing the pace of climate change before it is too late. Here’s what you need to know about this amazing scientist an advocate for the natural world:

Goodall’s Educational and Professional Accomplishments

Jane Goodall was born in 1934 in London. She left off her formal education at 18, working as a film production assistant and secretary to earn money for her passage to Africa. Once in East Africa, she became an assistant and student to the world’s leading anthropologist, Louis Leakey. In 1965, Goodall earned a PhD in ethology from the University of Cambridge, one of only a few people to have done so without completing a lower degree. 

In 1960, she founded her own base camp at Gombe Stream with the goal of immersing herself in the lives of local chimps. She stayed almost full-time in Gombe until 1975. In 1977, she co-founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation, which is now headquartered in Washington, DC. 

The Jane Goodall Institute continues to work internationally to promote her vision of understanding and working with nature, specifically of safeguarding East Africa’s chimps and their environment. In 1900, there were an estimated 1 million chimps living in the wild. Today, there are only about 340,000. The institute also focuses on protecting natural places worldwide for the benefit of their animal and human inhabitants. 

The author of several books on her own work, Goodall has become the focus of a number of biographies for adults and picture books for children, as well as the 2017 documentary film Jane, and the 2020 National Geographic documentary The Hope. In 2003, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. 

Goodall Has Worked in Tanzania for over 60 Years

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of her work in what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, Goodall participated in an interview as “Virtual Jane” with Forbes magazine’s Marianne Schnall, host of The Shift. Goodall said that humanity urgently needs to come together to take steps to control climate change before it’s too late.

In the interview, Goodall noted that people in the world’s larger cities were enjoying the “luxury of breathing clean air” as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the pace of fossil fuel-powered industry and transportation. She hopes that people are beginning to realize that they can continue breathing clean air and seeing stars in the night sky by taking decisive action.

In some parts of the world, unfortunately, the situation is already so grave that there may be little that individuals can do on their own. But for other nations, hope remains. 

Goodall’s Interest in Apes Began When She Was Young

When she was 10 years old, Jane Goodall saved her pocket money to visit her local used bookstore in England. One day, she found a copy of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and felt that she had found her life’s work. She would go to Africa and study and work with apes. Everyone laughed at the little girl’s unusual interest—except her mother. 

Goodall’s mother encouraged her scientific passion, telling her that if she was willing to put in the work to achieve her dream, nothing was beyond her reach. Goodall has since told that story to numerous schoolchildren, saying that they should also work toward their dreams and to never give up. 

Goodall’s 1960 Discovery Revolutionized the Study of Primates

One day in October 1960, she noticed that her favorite chimp, the one who first came to trust her and whom she had named David Greybeard, was doing something other researchers had thought impossible for any great ape. He was consciously using tools to achieve a goal.

Decades later, Goodall still remembers that pivotal moment: “I saw his hand reach out, break off a piece of grass...push it down into a termite mound...carefully pull it out.” All the termites attached to the blade of grass were “biting with their jaws” and she saw David “pick them off with his lips and crunch them up.” She later noted other chimps using tools in a similar fashion.

Her discovery revolutionized the study of the great apes, forever changing the way humankind viewed them - and itself. Goodall, through patient observation and gentle interest, had discovered something that few scientists had believed possible: that apes are capable of higher thought processes that parallel those of humans, and that the kinship between apes and humans is more than taxonomic, it is intellectual and emotional. 

Her work has also clarified other aspects of primatology. It was she who proved that chimps are not vegetarians, but omnivores, and that they have developed complex and sophisticated social structures and behaviors. 

Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Program Aims to Inspire Today’s Youth

Goodall enjoys sharing her breakthrough discovery with young audiences. She believes the environment's best hope lies with the young people of today. Their individual actions can then help create cleaner rivers and oceans. The sum total of all this work will have positive effects on a global level. 

Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program is specifically aimed at youth. Liaising with schools, the program empowers students with the tools they need to become effective researchers and advocates for the preservation of the natural world. 

Working individually or as teams, young people can take on meaningful projects, receiving guidance from adult mentors and from the Roots & Shoots team. To date, there have been more than 63,000 young participants in the US alone, from all 50 states. For example, a group at a Georgia school created the PAWSitive Kids program. Students partnered with a local animal shelter to help socialize and care for rescue