Jane Goodall, Roots and Shoots

Jane Goodall is a lifelong environmentalist, anthropologist and primatologist. Jane has spent more than 60 years studying primates, animals, coversation and helping protect and save animals and wildlife. In April of 2002 she was titled a UN Messager of Peace. Jane has basically dedicated her life to environmental efforts. She focuses mostly on animals and animal protection. But she has also created several programs that are environmental protection. She found the Jane Goodall Institutes and Roots and Shoots program.

As part of her wildlife conservation efforts she started the "Roots and Shoots" program in 1991. This program is helping communities do things to help clean up and preserve wildlife, animals and the environment. The program puts its efforts into encouraging youth to participate and learn about conservation and environmentalism. This non-profit has chapters in 140 countries with over 8,000 local chapters worldwide. And has a little over 150,000 youths that are participating in the program.

The Roots and Shoots program encouarages several different activities to help make our environment better. It asks children and older to focus on problems in their own community that impact people, animals and the environment. One of these is the "Local Neighborhood Cleanup" programs- where they ask children and older to schedule and organize litter pickups in their neighborhoods.

Roots and Shoots provides free materials and tools for teachers to use for teaching young people how to focus on ways to create programs and projects that will help their community. This focus on children and older hopes to teach young people a desire to keep our environment safe, protect our animals, and especially people.