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The Jane Goodall Institute of
Italy was set up in December 1998 as the Italian branch of the
Jane Goodall Institute International (JGI) on the initiative of
the President the biologist
Daniela
De Donno. JGI Italy is a
socially useful non profit making organisation, its philosophy
and aims are based on those of the JGI International: acting to
build a better future for people, animals and the environment.
THE VISION OF JGI -ITALIA
To contribute to a mindful long-term global development, based
on equal distribution of resources and environment-friendly
choices.
THE OBJECTIVE
To protect and enhance biologic and cultural diversities.
OUR ACTIONS
To promote respect and solidarity.
To support young people in developing greater critical
conscience, individual engagement, self-confidence and hope in
the future.
OUR PROJECTS
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International cooperation to
development in Tanzania, having particular regard to orphans
because of AIDS.
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Environmental and
humanitarian education directed towards children and young
people up to university through the international program Roots&Shoots.
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Animal protection, having
particular regard to chimpanzees as a symbol of those animal
species that are threatened by extinction.
The projects of JGI Italy are:
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Sanganigwa
Project: for the children of an orphanage in
Kigoma, Tanzania near the Gombe National Park. The Kigoma region
of Tanzania is one of the poorest areas of the world. JGI Italy
supports the cost of food, medicine, schooling and recreation
for 59 Tanzanian children between the ages of 3 and 19 of
different ethnic and religious backgrounds. In addition, their
schooling is supplemented by an internal education programme
which aims to facilitate children over 18 with their entry into
the world of work.
To support the Sanganigwa project, JGI Italy has started up a
programme of “distance
sponsorship”, the programme is directed at both
institutions and private citizens.
- Environmental education:
Roots &
Shoots (italian version) is the environmental and humanitarian programme
dedicated to young people. The aim of R&S is to teach respect
for the environment, to promote knowledge and understanding of
other cultures and to uphold the importance of every
individual’s commitment. The young people of R&S are actively
involved in projects concerning the local community, the
environment and animals.
-
Teaching
about peace and trans-cultural training (italian version):
Teaching about peace and trans-cultural training: to promote
inter-cultural knowledge and exchange, through a series of
didactic initiatives, a worldwide communication network and
concrete action. Respect and collaboration between citizens from
different cultural backgrounds is encouraged by means of
information on the origins and development of other societies.
Trans-cultural education directed at both young people and
adults greatly supports the process of social integration which
also requires an ever greater commitment to training in many
spheres, including the world of work.
- “So
like us” (italian version) programme: to expose the often deplorable
conditions of chimpanzees in captivity, to monitor and protect
chimps in captivity and to teach greater respect for this
species which is so similar to our own. Chimps should live
freely in the protected forests of Africa, if, unfortunately,
captivity is forced upon them then the structures in which they
live should be able to guarantee their well-being and
behavioural harmony. What’s more these structures have the
fundamental task of increasing public awareness of this species
as much as possible: that chimps too, just like people, prefer
to be free and that their natural habitats are unique and in
need of protection.
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SOME NEWS
- Jane Goodall Grand Officer Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Daniela De Donno Mannini, President of the Jane Goodall
Institute-Italia
Translation Maria Selene Polli (Scuola Superiore Carlo Bo)
(Milano, 21st November 2011)
In the course of 2011, the Jane Goodall Institute in Italy (JGI
Italia) is celebrating Jane Goodall who today, on the occasion
of the “International Year of Forests”,
will receive the honour of “Grand Officer Order of Merit of the
Italian Republic” from the President of the Republic of Italy
Giorgio Napolitano. Jane Goodall has been dedicating her life to
scientific knowledge and to the protection of the environment
since 1960, setting herself as an example and guide to hundreds
of thousands of scientists and young people all over the world.
It has now been fifty years since Jane Goodall started her
scientific observations in the Gombe Forest to understand how
the chimpanzee, the closest living creature to man, lives. At
present, receiving messages from the other side of the world in
real time has been made possible and the globalisation of
markets makes us long for the greengrocer across the street with
sustainable development being looked upon as pure fiction, it
appears difficult for us to believe that in 1960 nothing was
known about these animals. Jane discovered that they live in
organised societies, they have lifelong relationships, they
adopt the orphaned young, use tools for specific purposes,
respond to the “call” of the sound of waterfalls with
exhibitions of power and they fight to grant themselves more
resources. This behaviour rings a bell, in fact man is its
natural cousin.
Jane Goodall has become a living symbol who travels all over the
world to explain, especially to young people, how things stand
and how we can and must change, to really elevate ourselves to
becoming a sensible species, to become the most notable and
gifted one. During her conferences she never misses the chance
to communicate the need of living responsibly and modifying our
lifestyle in order to reduce environmental exploitation.
According to Jane Goodall knowledge is the tool for change,
because only after penetrating and taking in the world and other
cultures can we reach understanding, and only after
understanding can we respect, protect and learn to live with
others. Many years of experience on the field hahe led Jane
Goodall to associate the study of chimpanzees, which nonetheless
has never been interrupted, to natural preservation. This was
quite a natural step for an exceptional woman who witnessed,
from a scientist’s point of view, the rapid and relentless
reduction of the chimpanzees’ magnificent environment and of the
communities who live on the edge of the forest which is her
field of study. Far from standing there and watching things
happen, understanding the urgency of matters, Jane decided to
commit to the conservation of biodiversity and the fulfilment of
projects dedicated to helping the local communities adopt
responsible development too.
When I met Jane Goodall in Burundi back in 1992, where I was
working as a volunteer in her Institute in Bujumbura, directed
by the Australian veterinarian Susanne Abilgaard, what struck me
most was her tenacity. The police used to bring chimpanzees and
gorillas confiscated from dealers who stole the cubs from their
natural destiny by killing the rest of their family so as to
sell them as pets, show or laboratory animals or as bush meat.
In ’92 Jane Goodall was already famous for her discoveries and
already an icon of National Geographic. She teaches us that
every one of the beings she has studied has a different
character and capabilities which render them unique. Goodall was
already in the university zoology books that inspired me so much
at the time and universally recognised for having definitely
erased the clear borderline which separated man from the other
animals.
With these accomplishments Jane Goodall could have easily and
comfortably awaited interviews and honours in the magical Park
of Gombe in Tanzania or in her house in England surrounded by
her birches, instead she was there with volunteers such as
myself to set up divulgating exhibitions and presentations for
the parks’ nearby village schools or rehabilitation centres in
countries such as Tanzania, Burundi or Uganda and kept telling
us just how important our awareness project was, even if we were
to succeed in convincing just one student of the need to protect
the environment, because that single person would have made the
difference and sooner or later we would manage to stop
environmental degradation for a different world that someday
will have to be changed and that someone must do it and do it
quickly too. In the world’s remotest museum, the Tanzanian one
of Ujiji near Lake Tanganica dedicated to the encounter between
Livingston and Stanley that occurred there, Jane Goodall and we
volunteers by her side were preparing for an exhibition on the
chimpanzees to help the local population learn what was about to
disappear just a few feet away from them. It was 1993 and Jane
Goodall, tenacious and tireless as she was in observing
chimpanzees in the forest following them for hours on end
creeping in the underbrush, had embraced the young empowerment
cause, for the environmental awareness and civic
responsibilities: they are the ones who are going to live in
this world and are going to find it disembowelled and fetid,
they are the first to grasp the message, they are the ones who
can change things. It is to them that we must speak, we must
patiently stir. Having had Jane Goodall as an example has been
an exceptional opportunity. Example, using the words of the
great German Doctor Albert Schweitzer, is not the best way to
educate others, but the only one.
Jane Goodall’s battle for our future had already begun in 1977
with the foundation of the Institute “for Research, Education
and Conservation”, that, as it spread, (it can now be found in
26 countries around the world) set concrete projects based on
the concept that the preservation of a territory is linked to
the fate of the populations who inhabit it and that the
eco-systemic, integrated method is the right one to contrast the
disappearance of biodiversity which is caused by man. The
eco-systemic method suggests that the issues of local resource
managing, exploitable or preserved as the resources may be, may
be solved by completely involving those who live in that
determined environment: an integrated method which includes that
the preserved habitat becomes an environment which is
harmonically lived in by the population who interacts with it,
who because of this, must be solid, free from tyrannical
vileness as each depends on the other. We must know and act
responsibly.
Now that we know much more about chimpanzees and living systems
and believe unquestionably that their survival depends mostly on
us, we ask ourselves how to make people responsible also on
behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. In the chaos of
the world crisis that is dazzling Western Civilisation, but that
has always been the status quo of the weakest, we can see some
faint light, maybe because it is wise to think that before we
can surface we need to sink to the bottom although for the
weakest nothing other than the bottom has ever existed. If for
some the election of Obama, President of Afro-Muslim origins,
was just an excellent marketing operation, the Americans’ choice
of a man attentive towards social justice represented a turning
point. Moreover the rebellion of the young Arabs against
dictators, Women’s protests in Saudi Arabia for their rights and
the popular belief that the economic-centred system in which we
live will bring about our suicide and that reducing waste is
fundamental are step changes. Humanity makes us hope that one
day re-surfacing will be possible for all and we’ll live in an
advanced civilisation where the word progress will stand for
social and environmental balance. Indeed we can’t consider
civilised a world that accounts for 215 million children workers
of whom 115 million work in dangerous conditions risking
diseases and death everyday: these are children in Nairobi dumps,
beggars in Tanzania, in Cambodian mines, sex slaves in Thailand
and baby soldiers in Somalia disregarding all International laws
on Human Rights. There are many of us trying to help them, but
it isn’t enough. From the height of her experience Jane Goodall
tells us that we do well in hoping because our brain and our
untameable human spirit will make the right choices for a better
world for everyone. We of the JGL Italia are committed to this
hope when we work for the very poor community of Kigoma, for the
orphaned children and the young with no future, when we give
young Italians the tools to become confident, when we protect
animals and nature. “To achieve progress” Neuroscientist Tali
Sharot teaches us” we must be able to imagine alternative better
realities, and believe that we can create them”. To believe that
with our job we can make others’ conditions and environment
better is our ideal, and ideals are what we have to contrast
degradation, to bear sufferings and obstacles.
- Egypt for animal welfare. Daniela De Donno from Cairo.
(May 2011)
In these days of milestone changes and dreams to fulfil, public
protest is a way to plant a flag in the name of a
just cause. There is a host of political, social and economic causes to
stand up for. But there has been a protest, hidden under the
others in support of the human community well being and growth,
which deserves special attention as well, since it refers to the
principle of respect for all living beings. The protest has
turned out to be a historic moment in the Egyptian animal rights
advocacy and a howl of hope eventually proclaimed in the name of
whom us, human beings, the most intelligent on earth, have to
care for; a call for responsibility. The protest was on April
16th, in front of the Giza zoo. All historical Egyptian
organizations fighting for the defence of animal rights where
there, all together: ESAF (Egyptian Society for Animal Friends)
with whom my Organization works to promote environmental
education and the welfare of primates, AWAR (Animal Welfare
Awareness Research), ESMA (Egyptian Society for Mercy of Animals),
SPARE (Society for the Protection of Animals), Donkey Sanctuary,
Animal Abuse in Egypt (Group Hurghada), and a number of
foreigners, including myself who was representing the Jane
Goodall Institute and felt honoured to be part. No religion and
no political faith could have divided the coalition.
The main reason for the protest was to request better living
conditions for animals in the Egyptian zoos, the separation of
Cites from the zoo administration and management, a support to
urban animal conditions, for dogs and cats, as well as donkeys
and horses. The impulse to the protest was the death of one of
the three Orang-utans that had recently arrived, and the
pointless isolation of two chimpanzees, separated for display
reasons regardless of their natural need for socializing with
other chimpanzees. In fact, the situation at Giza zoo has not
changed since my last survey, one year ago, except for the
presence of two Orangos that I didn't see last time. I found the
compound a little cleaner.
For some of the animals conditions are particularly hard. The
two elephants are on a 80 centimeters chain all day, they cannot
turn to scratch their back if they need; this tells you
everything. Other animals are in poor condition, including the
bears, the lions, the apes while several monkeys are kept alone.
Most activities seem to aim at obtaining tips from visitors by
encouraging them to feed the animals or taking pictures to
immortalize the visitor with an animal.
When Dina Zulficar, responsible for the ESAF wildlife unit, told
me about their intention to organize a protest I was skeptical,
I thought it would have gone unnoticed among the many other
events. I was wrong. It was time to move, they had already tried
all possible ways in the past. The persons who were asking for
an improvement of the living conditions of the animals were
those who feed dogs and cats everyday in the streets, who take
stray animals to good hearted veterinaries curing for free, who
lighten donkeys’ loads, who fight violent capture of dolphins
and stop their exhausting performances for the entertainment
business. They try to create awareness among the large majority,
who approach animals only in a utilitarian way.
As a non-Egyptian I was fascinated by the peacefulness of the
protesters during the 25th January revolution. What the Egyptian
society wanted was simply to believe that an honest world is
possible, that equal distribution and social justice are
possible. And even on 16 April in front of the zoo, among these
children, men and women of all ages protesting also in the name
those who cannot talk and ask, let alone fight, I read words of
wisdom: a young women was carrying a sign “a nation can be
judged by the way it treats its animals. Ghandi”.
We have to believe our action can make a difference.
It is possible to see some images of the demonstration at the
following link:
http://wildlife-eg.yolasite.com/protest-pictures-16-april.php
- At last Cozy returns to Africa: his life has seen only neglect and exploitation but now Cozy the chimpanzee is being moved to a Jane Goodall Institute oasis in South Africa.
(August 2006)
In collaboration with the
CITES Service of the Italian State Forestry Corps the Jane
Goodall Institute in Italy (JGI Italia)
has rescued a
nine-year-old male chimp that was being kept in a caravan in the
Province of Ancona, Italy and has arranged for his transfer to
the sanctuary “JGI Chimpanzee Eden” in South Africa directed by
Eugene Coussons. Taken away from his mother at the age of one
Cozy, as he is called, was legally sold by American traders to
an Israeli juggler who trained him for small travelling shows.
Cozy performed on tour in Europe until in 2003 his owner fell
ill and died in an Italian hospital. While waiting to see what
would become of him, he was kept in a cage inside a camper van
for three years without once seeing daylight. His only
consolation was the care of the one-time partner of the juggler,
who looked after him although not without considerable
difficulty.
(Fig1: "Chimpanzee Eden" - Photo © Eugene Coussons/JGI -
South Africa.)
The
CITES Service immediately
did all they could to find a suitable place for the chimp to
live. As has been the case in the past, collaboration with the
Jane Goodall Institute was crucial, this international no-profit
organisation has been dedicated to the conservation of
chimpanzees and their natural environment for years, as well as
to environmental education and to cooperation in favour of
development. The “JGI Chimpanzee Eden”, a wildlife sanctuary
within the Umhloti Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga, in the heart of
South Africa, is the largest of all the African reserves, both
in terms of its geographical extension and its infrastructure.
The Jane Goodall Institute sanctuary is the perfect solution for
Cozy as it will allow for his rehabilitation and partial return
to nature.
 The Jane Goodall Institute
has always been opposed to the use of primates for entertainment
and advertising, as well as being in profound contrast with
their normal life and habits, the apes are also subjected to
physical and psychological violence. After this they take their
places in the queue of chimpanzees who are over 6-8 years old
and as such are no longer of use in the entertainment business;
while waiting to be relocated they are kept in squalid zoos or
put down by euthanasia.
(fig2:
"Quarantine Area" -
Photo © Eugene Coussons/JGI - South Africa.)
It is clear that “Operation
Cozy” has required considerable effort, both from the Forestry
Corps and the Jane Goodall Institute. There are high
expectations for the success of the initiative thanks to the
presence of the specialists from the
CITES Service, vets from
the ASUR and experts from the Jane Goodall Institute in Italy
and in South Africa.
Photographic material is
available on request to:
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