Renowned primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall made a quick stop on her round-the-world lecture tour to speak with journalists on Wednesday morning, before jumping on a plane to Saskatoon. When Dr. Goodall returns to Toronto, she’ll give a lecture, “Gombe & Beyond”, to a sold-out crowd in Con Hall.
The morning of the impromptu press conference marked the 50th anniversary of Goodall’s arrival in Tanzania’s Gombe Nation Park to start her pioneering work with chimpanzees.
“We missed our chance, but this is the anniversary,” she remarked before moving on to discuss the work for the Jane Goodall Institute that brought her to Toronto.
“There’s no point in exhausting ourselves doing conservation work if we aren’t also trying to raise the next generation to be better stewards than ourselves,” she said.
Those aren’t idle words. Roots & Shoots, JGI’s youth program, involves over 9,000 groups in 100 countries. On Sunday, Goodall will meet with some of these young people from Toronto groups, when Victoria college hosts the Roots & Shoots festival from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Goodall’s Con Hall lecture will discuss conservation strategies for Africa, including microcredit lending to women, scholarships to allow villagers to get higher education, fair trade farming practices, and HIV/ Aids education, alongside fostering a love of nature in youth worldwide.
“You have to ask people ‘what do you care about,’ and try and direct them within those areas,” she said.
Dr. Jane Goodall’s public lecture “Gombe & Beyond” is scheduled for Saturday, September 15 at 7:00 p.m. in Con Hall. A book signing will follow.
