Jane Goodall Institute

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Jane Goodall, founder of the institute JaneGoodallOct10.jpg
Jane Goodall, founder of the institute

The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global non-profit wildlife and environment conservation organization headquartered in Washington, DC. [1] It was founded in 1977 by English primatologist Jane Goodall and Genevieve di San Faustino (1919-2011). [2] The institute's mission is to improve the treatment and understanding of primates through public education and legal representation, to protect their habitats in partnership with local communities, and to recruit and train young people for these missions.

Contents

History

Jane Goodall began her career in 1960 in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Her research on chimpanzees proved that they are close to humans not only genetically, but also in their behavior. At the beginning of her research, she was able to work in an untouched forest, but over the years, the local population cleared larger and larger areas of trees and destroyed animals. Jane Goodall realized that in order for the chimpanzees to survive, she had to protect their habitat, but for this, it was necessary that the living conditions of the local population were suitable and that they cooperated in nature conservation work, knowing the common goal. This led to the founding of the Jane Goodall Institute.

At first, the daily activities of the institute were carried out from home by committee members and volunteers. In the early 1980s, the institute moved into the San Francisco office of the California Academy of Sciences and later to Washington, D.C.

Offices and partnerships

The institute has offices in more than twenty-five countries around the world. [3] With the recognition of a non-governmental organization by the city's municipal government, the Shanghai office became the first and only foreign environmental protection organization in China [4]

There is also a close partnership with the Jane Goodall Center for Excellence in Environmental Studies at the American Western Connecticut State University in Danbury in northern Connecticut.

In Congo, the institute has maintained the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center since 1999. It has 26 hectares of land at its disposal and a protected area of 72.84 km² was set up nearby by the government of Congo in March 1999. It is used to house orphaned chimpanzees.

Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School is a grades 6 through 8 school in Salem, Oregon, with a focus on environmental protection.

Cetacean Committee

In 2022, the JGI's Cetacean Committee was formed. It calls for an immediate worldwide ban on cetacean captivity, with a search for "the best outcomes for those already confined." [5]

On August 21, 2023, Melody Horrill from the committee commented on the recent death of the orca Tokitae (Lolita). Tokitae had spent half a century performing in a concrete tank for the Miami Seaquarium's previous owners, after being captured in the Pacific Northwest in 1970. Tokitae’s death came at a time when efforts were underway to move her to a sanctuary in her natal waters, but she died before she could have the opportunity to experience her natal waters again. [5]

Horrill said: [5]

"We are devastated that Tokitae will never receive what she was entitled to from the start – her freedom. Her death is a tragic reminder that no dolphins, whales, or porpoises should ever be kept in captivity for the purpose of entertainment. These highly intelligent, sensitive mammals deserve a natural life in the wild, free of exploitation."

Activities

Protecting Great Apes

JGI works to protect chimpanzees and other primates by supporting sanctuaries, law enforcement efforts to reduce illegal trafficking, and public education to protect endangered species in the wild. [6] The Chimp Eden Sanctuary in South Africa is one of the institute's sanctuaries. It is located in a forested reserve between Nelspruit and Barberton in Mpumalanga. [7] [8]

Improving gender and health outcomes

JGI achieves this through community-centered health projects, improvements to water supplies, and programs designed to keep girls in school. [9]

Promoting sustainable livelihoods

JGI does this through improved agricultural practices, community-managed microcredit programs, and sustainable production techniques that increase incomes while protecting forests [10] and watersheds. [11]

Cookbook

In 2021, the institute published a cookbook titled The Jane Goodall Institute #EatMeatless. [12] The book's forward was written by Goodall, a longtime vegetarian and now vegan. [13] Vegan journalist Avery Yale Kamila included the cookbook on her list of 2021's best cookbooks. [14] Food writer Mark Bittman interviewed Jane Goodall about the book on his podcast. [15] Veganuary listed the book no. 1 on its list of Best Vegan Cookbooks. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chimpanzee</span> Great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa

The chimpanzee, also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Goodall</span> English primatologist and anthropologist (born 1934)

Dame Jane Morris Goodall, formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, after 60 years studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. Goodall first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to observe its chimpanzees in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primatology</span> Scientific study of primates

Primatology is the scientific study of primates. It is a diverse discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology, and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychology, veterinary sciences and zoology, as well as in animal sanctuaries, biomedical research facilities, museums and zoos. Primatologists study both living and extinct primates in their natural habitats and in laboratories by conducting field studies and experiments in order to understand aspects of their evolution and behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great ape personhood</span> Extending personhood to nonhuman great apes

Great ape personhood is a movement to extend personhood and some legal protections to the non-human members of the great ape family: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Ape Project</span> International organization

The Great Ape Project (GAP), founded in 1993, is an international organization of primatologists, anthropologists, ethicists, and others who advocate a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights on non-human great apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.

Charlotte Jane Uhlenbroek is a British zoologist and BBC television presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gombe Stream National Park</span> National park in Tanzania

Gombe Stream National Park is a national park in Kigoma District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania, 16 km (10 mi) north of Kigoma, the capital of Kigoma Region. Established in 1968, it is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania, with only 35 km2 (13.5 sq mi) of protected land along the hills of the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The terrain is distinguished by steep valleys, and the vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest. Accessible only by boat, the park is most famous as the location where Jane Goodall pioneered her behavioural research on the common chimpanzee populations. The Kasakela chimpanzee community, featured in several books and documentaries, lives in Gombe National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tetsuro Matsuzawa</span>

Tetsuro Matsuzawa is a primatologist who was a past director of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University. He graduated from Kyoto University with a B.A. degree in 1974, a Psy.M. degree in 1976 and a Ph.D. degree in Science in 1989.

The Jane Goodall Institute (Hong Kong) (Chinese: 國際珍古德(香港)協會), founded in 2002, was established as a local registered charity involved in the promotion of the well-being of the community, animals and environment. The Jane Goodall Institute Hong Kong is one of the Asian branches of the Jane Goodall Institute which was founded in 1977 in California by Jane Goodall and Genevieve, Princess di San Faustino. With its headquarters in the US, the Jane Goodall Institute is a worldwide non-profit organization with 17 overseas offices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melody Horrill</span> Journalist and media manager

Melody Horrill is a journalist, former TV presenter and media/communications manager. She is the author of a memoir A Dolphin Called Jock which details how she discovered trust and love through an appreciation of nature through her remarkable friendship with a wild dolphin called Jock in Adelaide's Port River. The interaction helped her move past a childhood and youth dominated by domestic violence. She is now a passionate advocate for the dolphins of the Port River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Cussons</span>

Eugene Cussons was the Managing Director of "Chimpanzee Eden" as well as Rescue Director of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in South Africa. He is also the host of Animal Planet's Escape to Chimp Eden, author of the book Saving Chimpanzees and is the Executive Director and Ambassador of the "Generation Now" movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregoire (chimpanzee)</span>

Gregoire was, up until his death, Africa's oldest known chimpanzee. For the last eleven years of his life, he was a resident of the Tchimpounga Sanctuary in the Republic of the Congo. He was observed to have a pair bond relationship with the chimpanzee Clara. Previously he had been confined by himself for more than 40 years in a cage at the Brazzaville Zoo before being rescued by staff of the Jane Goodall Institute and airlifted to the Sanctuary during a time of war.

The Kasekela chimpanzee community is a habituated community of wild eastern chimpanzees that lives in Gombe National Park near Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. The community was the subject of Jane Goodall's pioneering study that began in 1960, and studies have continued ever since, becoming the longest continuous study of any animals in their natural habitat. As a result, the community has been instrumental in the study of chimpanzees and has been popularized in several books and documentaries. The community's popularity was enhanced by Goodall's practice of giving names to the chimpanzees she was observing, in contrast to the typical scientific practice of identifying the subjects by number. Goodall generally used a naming convention in which infants were given names starting with the same letter as their mother, allowing the recognition of matrilineal lines.

Carole Cooney Noon was an American anthropologist and primatologist best known for founding Save the Chimps, a Florida non-profit chimpanzee sanctuary that is the largest such sanctuary in the world as of 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tchimpounga Sanctuary</span>

The Tchimpounga Sanctuary, also known as the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center, for primates is located on a coastal plain of savanna and forest in the Republic of the Congo, and was built in 1992. The site covers an area of 70 square kilometres (27 sq mi). The sanctuary, part of the Jane Goodall Institute, is located 50 km north of Pointe-Noire in the Kouilou Department and is the largest chimpanzee sanctuary on the African continent. It has conducted research comparing food-sharing and social inhibition among chimpanzees and bonobos.

The Mitumba chimpanzee community is a group of wild eastern chimpanzees that inhabit a 10-kilometre-square area of the Gombe Stream National Park, near Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. This community borders the well-known Kasekela community of chimpanzees. The Mitumba community became well-known following the migration in 1996 of the female chimpanzee Flossi from the Kasekela community, becoming the first identified female chimpanzee to migrate from her natal group. In 2010 the community numbered 25 members. Mitumba males have occasionally been killed by males of the Kasekela community. The Mitumba community's range and size has declined since the 1970s largely as a result of competition with the Kasekela community and due to habitat destruction. Rivalry with Kasekela community in the 1990s and 2000s resulted in several Mitumba chimps being killed by Kasekela males, including the infants Rejea and Andromeda and most likely the adult male Rusambo. During this rivalry, Mitumba males killed the Kasekela adult female Patti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chimp Eden</span> Animal sanctuary in South Africa

The Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden, commonly referred to as Chimp Eden, is situated within a 1,000 ha game reserve and animal sanctuary for rescued chimpanzees, in the Umhloti Nature Reserve, near Barberton, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Opened in 2006 by founder and director Eugene Cussons, in collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), its purpose is to provide a permanent and safe home for chimpanzees who are rescued from abusive and unfortunate circumstances from areas where these great apes are being constantly exploited by humans through the bushmeat trade, pet trade and entertainment industries. At the sanctuary, the chimpanzees are rehabilitated with the help of their care takers in being re-introduced back into chimpanzee social skills and live in a social group with others of their own kind.

The Gombe Chimpanzee War, also known as the Four-Year War, was a violent conflict between two communities of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in the Kigoma region of Tanzania between 1974 and 1978. The two groups were once unified in the Kasakela community. By 1974, researcher Jane Goodall noticed the community splintering. Over a span of eight months, a large party of chimpanzees separated themselves into the southern area of Kasakela and were renamed the Kahama community. The separatists consisted of six adult males, three adult females and their young. The Kasakela was left with eight adult males, twelve adult females and their young.

International Primate Day, September 1, is an annual educational observance event organized since 2005 largely by British-based Animal Defenders International (ADI) and supported annually by various primate-oriented advocacy organizations, speaks for all higher and lower primates, typically endorsing humane agendas where primates are at risk, as in research institutions or species endangerment in precarious environmental situations.

<i>Jane</i> (2017 film) 2017 American documentary about Jane Goodall

Jane is a 2017 American biographical documentary film directed and written by Brett Morgen about primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist Jane Goodall.

References

  1. "Contact - The Jane Goodall Institute". The Jane Goodall Institute. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
  2. Haugen, Brenda (2006). "Life and times" . Jane Goodall : legendary primatologist. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books. pp.  96-101. ISBN   9780756515904.
  3. "Our Global Presence - The Jane Goodall Institute". The Jane Goodall Institute. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
  4. Jane Goodall Institute Shanghai.
  5. 1 2 3 "JGI Statement on the passing of Tokitae in Miami Seaquarium". Jane Goodall Institute. London, United Kingdom. August 21, 2023. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
  6. "Protecting Great Apes & Primates from Disease & Trafficking - The Jane Goodall Institute". The Jane Goodall Institute. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  7. "World mourns loss of beloved chimpanzee hero". Lowvelder. 2022-01-13. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  8. "South Africa's Chimp Eden maulers escape death penalty". BBC News. 2012-07-04. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  9. "Improving Gender & Health Outcomes - The Jane Goodall Institute". The Jane Goodall Institute. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  10. Baker, Sam (2019-07-12). "'The biggest problem is greed' says conservationist Jane Goodall". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
  11. "Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods - The Jane Goodall Institute". The Jane Goodall Institute. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  12. Gwinn, Alison (2021-03-16). "Jane Goodall Launches Vegan Cookbook". AARP. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  13. Wang, K. L. Connie (2021-10-01). "Dr. Jane Goodall Wants You to Eat Less Meat and Her Reasons Are Pretty Sound". Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  14. Kamila, Avery Yale (2021-12-12). "The best vegan and vegetarian cookbooks of the year". Press Herald. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  15. "Food with Mark Bittman: The Ever Hopeful Jane Goodall on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  16. "Best Vegan Cookbooks for Veganuary and Beyond". Veganuary. 2021-09-24. Retrieved 2022-01-03.