As a child, Goodall worked in the fields and recognized that lifting people out of poverty was essential to preserving the national park’s biodiversity. So she started the Tacare program, which offers microcredits to start sustainable businesses, scholarships for girls who had been unable to access secondary education, and advice on family planning. In addition, farmers receive advice on sustainable, chemical-free agricultural practices, such as permaculture.
“I realised that the reason trees were being cut down was because people were struggling to survive,” the scientist reflects. “Their families were growing and they couldn’t afford to buy food elsewhere. Their own farmland was infertile from overuse. So they cut down trees, either to make soil, to grow food or to make money from charcoal or wood.”
Only when people secure their own livelihoods are they inclined to face the repercussions of their actions and address their environmental impact. This change in behaviour is evident in the villages surrounding the national park, where new technologies are helping locals. Using a simple mobile phone app, residents can report illegal tree felling by capturing images of fallen trunks. Initially launched in 12 villages in Gombe, the initiative is now operating in 104 villages in Tanzania and six other African countries.
By stopping deforestation, chimpanzees are no longer forced to live in a confined territory isolated from the outside world. They have created corridors where they can move freely and interact with other groups, promoting genetic exchange. Today, the chimpanzees in Gombe are connected to their counterparts in neighbouring Burundi and have a better chance of survival.
Further north in Uganda, Goodall tells us of a farmer who is participating in the Jane Goodall program. His main source of livelihood is growing sugar cane. However, his farming activities have attracted the attention of chimpanzees, whose habitat and food sources are being reduced by farming. In response, he decided to set aside part of his land near the rainforest surrounding his farm to grow the chimpanzees’ favorite crops. This way, the chimpanzees would have less incentive to raid his sugar cane fields.
“Local people now understand that conservation benefits both wildlife and their own future,” says the primatologist. Goodall firmly believes in the transformative power of grassroots efforts to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity and ensure a sustainable future for all.
Goodall shares a number of encouraging examples of environmental stewardship. With these, one could paint a picture of human progress in preserving nature. However, Goodall tempers this optimism with a look at reality. “Take the United States as an example. Biden reinstated a lot of regulations to protect wildlife. Trump has boasted that if he comes back, he will open up national parks to logging and mining. I mean, he’s actually bragging about it,” she says.
In Africa, China is increasingly active, investing in rapid construction of roads, dams and mineral extraction, at the expense of the environment and space for wildlife.
“Interestingly, within China, they are at the forefront of developing solar energy. They are now very interested in protecting their own environment,” says Goodall. “We can always blame China, but what they are doing is taking care of their own environment and getting all the materials they need by damaging other environments. But that is what the colonial powers did and that is what big business continues to do. The United States gets its raw materials by going into mining in other countries, the developing countries.”
