I wear my clothes for years and discard them only when they become disreputable: Dr Jane Goodall in Dubai

Dr Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace and champion of the chimps, is a delight to talk to. Visiting UAE to support the sustainability hub TERRA to launch its initiatives in biodiversity and help grow her youth-empowering Roots & Shoots programme in the country, she took time out to speak to Gulf News about her impactful journey as a conservationist over the decades.

A vegan, she said she wears her clothes for years until they become disreputable and buys only ethically and sustainably made products. She also talked about how Jubilee, the toy chimp had dad gifted her as a child, is currently on a tour of the US in a bullet proof glass case.

Excerpts from the exclusive interview:

Tell us about the purpose of your visit to the UAE?

I am here to help grow the Roots & Shoots (R&S) programme for young people, kindergarten through university. There are already 200 groups throughout the UAE who choose projects to make things better for people, animals and the environment. Thousands of children have told me that joining R&S has changed their lives, given them hope. And many people working with the programme maintain the values that are important – respect for each other, for other animals, and for mother nature.

From chimpanzees to bees, can you trace your journey with conservation?

I was born loving animals. I had a supportive mother who encouraged my interest in the natural world. I read books about animals (there was no TV when I was a child). I was 10 when I decided I would go to Africa, live with wild animals and write books about them. Most people laughed and said that would be impossible – especially because I was a girl. But not my mother. We had very little money though and I could not afford university. I learned to be a secretary – but still dreaming of Africa. Then, a school friend invited me for a holiday in Kenya – ah! There was the opportunity.

How did you tap the opportunity?

I was fortunate to be introduced to Dr. Louis Leaky, famous paleontologist. He took me on a “dig” on the Serengeti – there was virtually no tourism then – it was wild. I encountered up close a lion and another day, a rhino. Leakey said I reacted just right and that I was the person he had been looking for to be the first person to study chimpanzees in the wild. I spent years in the forests of Gombe National Park in Tanzania living with and learning from a community of chimps – our closest living relatives.

So how did you become a champion of the chimps?

When I learned, at a conference of primatologists in 1986, that their numbers were decreasing across Africa as forests were cut down, I knew I had to try to do something about it.

By then there were six other African countries where chimps were being studied. I visited them. Learned about the problems facing chimps – the bush meat trade, shooting mothers to steal their infants for entertainment, or as pets – and in those days, medical research (since brought to an end). But I also learned about the problems of so many Africans living in or around chimp forest habitats – crippling poverty, lack of health and education facilities. Trees cut down by villagers desperate for money from timber, charcoal, or clearing areas where they could grow more food to sell. I realised that unless we could help these people find ways of making a living without destroying the environment, we could not save chimps, forests or anything else.

So began Tacare, the Jane Goodal Institute’s method of community LED conservation. So successful it is now in villages throughout most of the chimps’ range in Tanzania, and in six other countries. Finally, through no will of mine, I have become a voice for the natural world. I have always wanted to help all animals, and understand that healthy ecosystems are essential for their survival in the wild. I also fight for conditions in captivity. Fight against trophy hunting. Teach people that animals are sentient, have feelings like us. That they are way more intelligent than people used to think. And bees, with their tiny brains, are extremely intelligent. R&S teaches respect for all animals, and empathy towards them

Talking of chimps, how is Jubilee, the toy chimp that your dad gifted you as a child? Do you still have it?

At the moment, Jubilee is part of an exhibit touring America in a bullet proof glass case!

As a conservationist, what do you think are the top three challenges facing the world today?

Climate change, loss of biodiversity, poverty – and a fourth – unsustainable lifestyles.

What are the solutions you prescribe?

Join R&S – children can influence their parents. And help people understand that every one of us impacts the planet every day, and though people think their little efforts – such as turning off lights and taps, picking up trash, buying products produced ethically – cannot make a difference – if everyone acts thus, the cumulative effect will be huge.

Your comments on the UAE’s efforts to combat climate change?

The UAE has taken significant steps to combat climate change by heavily investing in renewable energy, particularly solar power, aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 through initiatives like the “UAE Net Zero 2050” strategy, promoting energy efficiency, diversifying energy sources, and hosting the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in 2023 to further global climate action; they also support clean energy projects internationally and have implemented carbon capture technologies to reduce emissions from their oil and gas industry.

At a personal level, what are some of the sustainable steps you have taken that continue to hold you in good stead?

Very important – I have become a vegan. Eating meat is very harmful to the planet and very cruel to animals, especially factory farmed animals. It takes a lot of water to turn vegetable to animal protein. And the animals, especially cows, produce a great deal of methane – a very, very virulent green house gas. I wear my clothes for years, and only discard them when they are disreputable.

I buy ethically and sustainably made products (and buy as little as possible). I stay a lot in hotels – I do not have room service, use no more than two towels, put my trash in a paper bag (always some coming with food etc, and the gifts I am given) so as not to use the plastic which is almost always lining all the bins for rubbish. And I choose hotels that are trying to be sustainable.

What about your family and where are you are currently based?

In between tours, and I am on the road some 300 days a year, I get four days to a week in my family home where I grew up. My sister Judy lives there permanently with her daughter Pip. I see my son, Hugo, known as Grub, twice a year, and my two eldest grandchildren, at Gombe for a few days. He is building a prototype of an environmentally friendly house which he is sure will revolutionise the construction industry round the worl. At the moment he is in Rwanda. My grandson, Merlin, is 28 years old, and his sister, Angel. They are both working with JGI in Tanzania. My youngest grandson, Nick, 23, is in London working on documentary films.

So I am hardly resident anywhere. I get a bit longer at home around Christmas – three weeks.