Ever since British primatologist Jane Goodall launched her worldwide mission for chimp welfare in 1986 she has constantly been on the move. Most of her days are "spent in airplanes, lobbying like crazy, writing letters and sorting through slides," she says. Since starting her campaign over a decade ago, she has rarely stayed in one place for more than three weeks.
But for her, "it's all worth it because every little effort counts."
"Everyone makes a difference," she emphasized. "As a group, we are making a huge difference."
Pushing the public and politicians
Formerly a field researcher who spent her days far away from other human beings, Goodall now spends her time with a different type of primate -- politicians and the general public -- promoting her cause.
Arriving in Taiwan on Sunday for an annual visit and promotion of her environmental protection program "Roots and Shoots," the people Goodall will have met by the time she leaves, in addition to children who participate in her program, read like a list of who's who in Taiwan.
Yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (
Visits with other political heavyweights are on her schedule as well, including former president Lee Teng-hui (
The Jane Goodall Institute Taiwan was founded with the active support of the government in 1998. The institute was co-founded by many celebrities, who also served as steering members, such as then-Government Information Office director-general Jason Hu (胡志強), the then-president's consultant, Ko Chi-beng (高志明), and KMT lawmaker Eugene Jao (趙永清).
Goodall has found in all her years of campaigning that getting influential people on board is always helpful in educating the general public, for fundraising and putting pressure on African governments to raise concern for chimpanzees.
"People in high places are helpful," she said.
Animal testing a motivation to educate
It was the experimentation conducted on animals that led Goodall, 66, to take her crusade beyond the forest in 1986.
"Once I let go, it all comes crowding in and I have pictures in my mind of chimps in chains, chimps in laboratories. It's awful ... I think about other tiny chimps in tiny prisons, though they have committed no crimes," she said with a slight quiver. "Once you've seen it, you can't forget."
To educate the public, Goodall has long emphasized the difference between animals and humans, while pointing out the harm that animal experiments can bring to both humans and animals.
"I think it's very unfortunate that we ever thought we were justified in destroying animals for our own benefit," she said.
Thinking of the animals' plight, "you have to jump in and try to help," Goodall said during at a recent video lecture to children in Taipei, Taichung and Singapore.
Individual efforts can make a big difference
Goodall's life has been one that epitomizes the difference an individual can make.
She is the one who uncovered many aspects of chimp behavior during her first years at Gombe National Park, challenging the longstanding definition of human beings at the time: Man the toolmaker.
There she observed a male chimp, called "David Greybeard" by Goodall, using a twig to fish termites out of a hole, suck the insects off the stick and poke the now-empty twig back into the hole in search of a second helping. Even more exciting was the discovery that chimps not only used tools, but also picked small twigs and prepared them for use by stripping off the leaves.
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