Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore)

In 1977, Dr Jane Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation to provide ongoing support for field research on wild chimpanzees. Today, the mission of the Jane Goodall Institute is to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things. The Institute is a leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats and is widely recognized for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa and the Roots & Shoots education program in nearly 100 countries.

The Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore), known as JGIS and an affiliate of the Jane Goodall Institute headquartered in the United States, was officially established in Singapore on 24 September 2007. JGIS has already had numerous successes including:

• Expansion from 2 to 13 Roots & Shoots groups in schools in Singapore
• A widely publicized visit to Singapore in October – November 2007 by Dr Jane that started with a key note address at the NVPC conference and culminated in the Wildlife Stampede in the Singapore Botanic Gardens that attracted 1,500 participants
• Greater awareness and promotion activities to protect the environment, protect animals and help people

The goals of JGIS mirror the global JGI goals that include support for issues related to our relationship with each other, the environment and other animals as well as primate and habitat conservation. To make it even simpler, JGIS uses a shorthand goal that we say is to “Save the Planet”. JGIS activities are designed to support the key objectives of JGIS.

Roots & Shoots

Development and expansion of Roots & Shoots is a core activity for JGIS in 2008. JGIS plans to develop common themes for Roots & Shoots groups in order to encourage more cooperation among groups. An example would be focusing on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, with groups sharing ideas on how to reduce, where to recycle or other practices. Themes chosen by students are likely to be most effective in galvanizing action.

As the number of R&S groups grows in Singapore, new groups can learn from established groups and established groups can build their leadership expertise by sharing best practices with the new groups. Processes will be set up for sharing of best practices with new groups by established groups. While many groups are in schools, Roots & Shoots companies and non-profit organizations can also form Roots & Shoots groups.

Other opportunities for R&S in 2008 include:

• Outreach programs to schools, supported by MOE, to sign up more schools
• Other activities designed to share best practices
• Student-led networking sessions among all schools or school clusters
• Participation in student conferences and leadership activities abroad
• Joint activities with other groups and potential expansion into other non-profit groups

Contact

Address: 140 Robinson Road #05-02, Singapore 068907

Tel: 6323 5188

Email: hartung@starhub.net.sg

Web site: www.janegoodall.org (Singapore site coming soon)

Note: This article and image are provided by JGIS.

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