Jane in the Boston Globe!

Of Chimps and Humans - The Boston Globe
Hemmed in by burgeoning settlement in Tanzania, apes are dying off; the Jane Goodall Institute has a strategy to save them
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff November 13, 2006

GOMBE NATIONAL PARK, Tanzania -- Starting nearly a half-century ago, Jane Goodall helped the world see chimpanzees differently -- as animals quite a bit like us.
Now an institute named after her is tackling a more difficult job: saving them. Here on the shores of the deep-water Lake Tanganyika , where Goodall, 72, still returns twice a year, the problems faced by chimpanzees all over Africa are seen in microcosm: Villages surrounding this tiny park are growing rapidly, refugees periodically arrive in great numbers, people clear forests to grow crops, and some hunt the chimps for food.

At the turn of the 20th century, an estimated 1 million to 2 million chimpanzees roamed in Africa's forests. Their numbers today have fallen to fewer than 150,000. In order to protect the chimps in the forests of central and western Africa, including an estimated 100 living in tiny Gombe Park, the Jane Goodall Institute hopes its 46 years of research will continue to educate people and raise money. But the institute is also focusing on the chimps' neighbors: Organizers believe that if they can improve the lives of villagers, the villagers will leave the chimps and the forests alone.

"To protect the great apes, you have to deal with their habitat," said Keith Brown , executive vice president of the institute's Africa program. "Bush meat is a big problem, but a bigger issue is that people want more land for agriculture, and they are using slash-and-burn tactics to do that."

Institute officials hope that the Tanzanian coffee growers will soon sign a deal to supply beans to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Vermont, providing income to hundreds of coffee growers who live near the park. Included in the agreement would be an expansion of the forest areas preserved for the chimps.

For the rest of the story go to: http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/11/13/of_chimps_and_humans/

To read more about our Africa Programs go to:
http://www.janegoodall.org/africa-programs/index.asp