In 1960, at the age of 26, Jane Gudol studied Chimpanzee at Gombay Stream National Park in Tanzania. His search was on the ground and his approach to fieldwork was revolutionary. In the daily life of Chimps, he gave himself a lion and named the theme.
After that, Gudol became a tireless lawyer for protection, in addition to one of the world’s most famous primatologists. In 1977, he founded The Jane Gudol Institute, which works worldwide to protect wildlife and environment, but establishes people’s lives for further protection.
In 2019, Gudol spoke with his work and DW about him. After the news broke on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, we are re -published the interview, that the protectionist died at the age of 91, while on a US speech tour.
DW: Why do you think that some people paint hope or are not transferred to take action to protect the environment?
Jane Goodol: The biggest problem is greed. People want more and more – more than their need. Companies want to increase big and big and big and big and competition. And the difference between Havs and Haver-Nots is getting bigger all the time, causing resentment and anger, okay.
Talking about this, many of your environmental work focuses on taking people out of poverty. What happened to you to connect this social justice work with more traditional protection efforts?
It was back in 1986, when I realized that the number of chimps in Africa was decreasing and which was destroyed, the residence. I decided that I should go to a different countries and learn more about it, which I managed to do. But at the same time, I was learning about the plight of many people living in and in Chimpanzee residence and in it: crippled poverty, good health and lack of education, destruction of environment.
Because when you are very poor, you cut the last trees to try and make some more food or make charcoal. It was when I flew on that small Gombay National Park and saw that was part of a great equatorial forest belt extending from East to West Africa (and he was in 1960). When I flew by 1990, it was a small island forest to surround it with the entire hills and people were struggling to survive.
When I realized that if we do not help people find other ways to live compared to destroying the environment, we cannot even try to help the chimps.
And so we started our Jane Gooddle Institute Tackare Program (Tech Care, Takare) and there were some NGOs at the time of handing out the local communities to Bits and Cott, but we separated instead. We chose a small group of local Tanzanian people – seven of them – and they went to the villages and asked the people that ‘what can JGI do to help?’ And this is where we started.
A lot of your work and programs, roots and shoots focus on children and youth. Can you give us some examples of projects that students have done through the year that gives you hope for the future?
First I should say that the program started with 12 high school students, now in around 60,000 countries, with about 150,000 active groups. We have found everything in the middle of the kindergarten and the university and everything in the middle.
Students themselves choose three projects: to help one people, to help an animal, to help an environment. Because we try and bring them as much as possible, even though it is usually really really, they understand that we have different colored skin, come from different cultures and different religions, but real below real. We are all a family.
So some projects? Well, all over the world, they are planting trees, which they decide to do. Many of them are working very hard to eliminate plastic and teach about recycling – huge projects on those things going on in China. They raise money in a very imaginative way for some time and it can be to help stray dogs in a shelter or it can be to help refugees in another country or the same country and it can be for earthquake victims.
It is only diverse as young people. They select various projects, which depend on which country they are. Sometimes it has to be politically sensitive, what they do. It depends that they are rich or poor, and it depends on their age.
What do you want more people knew about animals?
There are feelings of animals like us, that they have personality, that they can feel happy or unhappy, that they may feel Petin and Flair and controversy. And that they are very intelligent as we thought.
Mice are trained to detect landmine. These are huge forest councils and are credited with help in freeing the mozambic landmine. I met many people of Mozambic, who lost one leg or leg after walking on a landmine after civil. Rats are so intelligent.
The octopus can build a house for the bags from the empty clam shells. If there are no rocks, they want to hunt because they need rocks to hide. So they take two empty clams shells with them and then go to a half part and pull over their head.
Birds can make equipment. You know, we find out all these things – this is a very exciting time.
How do you think that humans can regain our relationship with the natural world and can understand our place better in it?
This is what we expect to do through the root and shoot – give children an opportunity to stay out in nature. Once they get out of nature, they love it, especially younger people.
We need a natural world for our good psychological health. We need green color and should be out in nature.
Do you think people are the most importing thing to test our planet?
I think every day people should understand that their life is making a difference and they should start thinking about the results of small options they make.
Like, what do you buy? How does it come? Did it harm the environment? Was the result of this, like a factory fields? Is this hair cheaper due to slave labor? You start making moral options – let’s not use plastic, let’s recycle, let’s use again, let’s not throw, let’s not waste food.
Yes, large corporations and governments can have heavy differences, but in minimal democracy, people are responsible for being elected to power. And if you do not like how to do a business work, the consumer has a big responsibility because if you do not like that he does not like it, do not buy it.
This is another reason to eliminate poverty because if you are really poor, you cannot choose. All you have to do is buy the cheapest.
So the most importing message is: what do you do every day, and how you use the most, and can you go to sleep thinking, ‘I gave the world a little better today’? And people do this in different ways.
I should finally say that if you fly on Gombay today, you will not look at the bare hills because people have understood that preserving the environment is for themselves with themselves. The trees are back.
It was nice to see those expectations.
This is why I am walking. I meet amazing people and I see incredible projects everywhere.
This interview is condensed and edited for clarity. It was originally published on July 12, 2019, and was reinstated after Gudol’s death on 1 October 2025.