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Sowing
Seeds of Peace
 For many years Jane Goodall
lived in a paradise, in Gombe, the mountain home of chimpanzees in
Tanzania, Africa. She describes these memorable years on her website: "The
most wonderful thing about fieldwork, whether with chimps, baboons or any
other wildlife, is waking up and asking yourself, 'What am I going to see
today?' Living under the skies, the forest is for me a temple, a cathedral
made of tree canopies and dancing light, especially when it's raining and
quiet. That's heaven on earth for me... It's paradise."
Once you have lived in paradise you do everything to protect it. Today,
Goodall travels around the world trying to save many spaces like Gombe
from animal poachers, unscrupulous developers and forest destroyers. Her
organization, Roots and Shoots, inspires school and college students in 70
countries to look after the local community, the animals and to preserve
their immediate environment. From a chimp researcher she is today United
Nations Messenger of Peace.
Animal Rights and Peace? London-born Goodall does not believe world peace
is simply the giving up of arms. At a recent talk on Reason for Hope,
organized by Wildlife Trust of India in New Delhi, Goodall said peace also
involves the breakdown of barriers of religion, nations and socio-economic
and cultural differences. "It's about cultivating a harmonious
relationship between humans and nature." It's about erasing the line
between the animal world and the human world. "Peace is about respecting
the intrinsic value of every human being and each animal on this earth."
Goodall asserts that most research done on animals over the past two
decades has been useless to humans. Today, Goodall engages with several
pharmaceutical companies and industrial houses, trying to convince them to
look at animals as part of their own world. Unlike many animal lovers,
Goodall is not strident or shrill; she approaches her adversaries with
gentleness and a firm knowledge base.
How does she convince the hardcore destroyers of forests or sea life? How
does she resolve the eternal conflict of the animals' rights to their
habitat vs. the humans' right to livelihood? "I tell the large
corporations
to consider the future of their employees, the future of their families.
Humans are not naturally cruel. Heads of state, polluting units or even
oil
companies essentially want to be good citizens. I speak to them about
caring for the future of their employees. Of how damage to the environment
will also hurt them."
Already, attempts are being made the world over to marry development with
conservation. In the US, a businesswoman was awarded a contract to build a
train track in a forest which was home to the rare Whooping crane.
Constructing the rail track meant destroying the habitat of the crane. The
contractor didn't want to do that. But neither did she want to give up
building the track. "So, she shifted the cranes and their habitat to a
bigger area. It took her three years to create a new habitat. But in the
end, the track was built and the birds' habitat also survived. In fact,
the
birds multiplied in the new habitat," says Goodall.
However, she agrees that the road to peace and harmony is tough and long.
"Developed societies have moved away from the natural world. The task is
huge. The Bush administration has gone and undone whatever the Clinton
administration tried to achieve in terms of conservation. But
increasingly,
people are realizing that they have damaged a lot. I am very hopeful.
Instead of
waiting for others, each one should decide to do something about the
problem."
In India, Goodall met President A P J Abdul Kalam, officials in the
environment ministry, school principals, spiritual leaders and NGOs to
share with them her vision of peace and animal care. "President Kalam is
very keen to take the conservation movement forward. India has a long
history of regard for animals. There is a lot to learn from here. The
Delhi
and Bangalore schools I met were very responsive. They want to involve
students in conservation. The ministry officials even wanted to reach out
to different schools through the Roots and Shoots concept," said Goodall.
Just like roots go underground to make a firm foundation and shoots break
through walls to get light, Goodall sees young people creating a firm
foundation for the planet and breaking all barriers - towards
conservation.
Goodall's path-breaking research on chimps between 1960 and 1965 focused on
the fragile and yet crucial relationship between animals, forests and
humans. Relationships which most of us have forgotten in our urge to
control and consume everything on earth. Her research also established
that
like humans, chimpanzees are intelligent, emotional and they grow with
relationships. During her talk, Goodall shared pictures of the chimp
family
album - chimps bonding, playing, crying, working, bullying, attacking and
ageing.
One of Goodall's very special slides is that of chimps digging for
termites
with a straw. This was the first evidence of how evolved the chimps are.
Goodall's research exploded the myth that only humans make and use tools.
Goodall's experience in Gombe was also the beginning of her fight against
misuse and abuse of animals in laboratories, circuses and zoos,
destruction
of forests and against harmful development. Her happy memories of chimps
made her speak against animal testing from a position of strength. "The
human mind is excellent. It has taken us to the moon. It can think of so
much. Why can't it think of alternatives to experimenting on animals?" she
asks.
Of course, Goodall's childhood dream to study chimps was not easy to
achieve. She had no college education and no money when she went to
renowned anthropologist Louis Leakey with her dream. She was 26 and
single, which made research on animals in the wild Tanzanian forests too
dangerous, too radical. Yet, Goodall was determined, and took her mother
as
an escort to Gombe.
Her research earned her a Ph.D from Cambridge University and motivated her
to establish the Gombe Stream Research Centre Home and later, the Jane
Goodall Institute to focus on primate studies. In the following years she
penned two books, 'Wild Chimpanzees' and 'In the Shadow of Man', which
have
inspired people to care for animals.
These days she barely manages to visit Gombe more than twice a year. The
otherwise very shy primates sometimes come out to see her. Most of the
time
she is lecturing, writing letters (a 100 a day sometimes) to children,
traveling and talking to different people about saving the planet. A
small
but significant attempt to help regain paradise.
– Malvika Kaul
February 9, 2003
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By arrangement with
Womens Feature Service
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