Dr. Jane Goodall’s Life with Chimpanzees and for Nature Conservation

We were glad to have Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, delivered a valuable seminar on nature conservation to members of the Scout Association of Hong Kong during her visit to Hong Kong in November 2014. Dr. Goodall shared with us her road to the success in the study of chimpanzees and nature conservation, and the establishment of Jane Goodall Institute, which is a global non-profit organization that empowers people to make a difference for all living things.

Her work taught people about chimpanzees, especially the chimpanzees of Gombe. People learnt more about chimpanzees through her books, particularly In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window, and the Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior. She realized that people were destroying the forest for different reasons and affecting the living of chimpanzee community. Thus, she decided to leave her beloved Gombe forest and work for the chimpanzees by saving the forest. Nowadays, Dr. Goodall travels more than 300 days per year talking to audiences about their power to help other people, animals and the environment. She founded her Institute in 1977 with programmes designed to benefit people who are living in poverty in Africa, and to spread the word about the importance of conserving the forests and animal populations. The Institute also has the Roots & Shoots global youth programme, which helps young people to learn about problems in their communities and the world and then take action towards solving those problems.

From this sharing, we could be exemplified from Dr. Goodall’s life that courage is the power to confront all difficulties. We should set a goal, believe I can do it and work for it without hesitation. Her rationale towards the nature is more or less the same as that of our founder Lord Baden-Powell and the scout movement, especially in the World Scout Environment Programme and Messengers of Peace. In Dr. Goodall’s book, My Life With Chimpanzees, she said “Young people, when informed and empowered, when they realize that what they do truly makes a difference, can indeed change the world. They are changing it already.” In world scouting, we are making our world a better one by trying and leaving this world a little better than we found it. Scouts are coming together in local communities to make a difference.

Apart from the sharing of Dr. Goodall, students were invited to share with us their Roots & Shoots projects conducted in schools. Besides, Samuel Hung, chairman of Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, was also invited to deliver a talk on the threads facing by the Chinese White Dolphin, which is an endanger species in the Pearl River Estuary near and around Hong Kong water.

It was a good time for us to gather talking about the weakness of our earth. We should join hands and learn and work together for our better world no matter where you are. It is deeply believed that every single one of us could make a difference for our future. Let’s work together for our beautiful and wonderful world!

By Agnes Lau
Assistant HQ Commissioner (Environmental Protection)
Scout Association of Hong Kong