Conservationists have long celebrated April 3 as Jane Goodall’s birthday. Now it marks something else: A call to act.
Jane Goodall Day is being launched by the Jane Goodall Institute as a day for people to do one real thing that helps people, animals, and the environment, rather than simply remember her life. The idea follows a theme colleagues say ran through Goodall’s work for decades: start small, pay attention, and keep going.
Anna Rathmann, executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute USA, said the goal is to “make good” on Goodall’s long-held belief that each person can make a difference.
“On what would have been her 92nd birthday, April 3rd, we thought that the best way to honor Jane is to literally ‘make good’ on that belief through a collective day of positive action,” Rathmann said, according to Mongabay. “On our first-ever Jane Goodall Day, we are inviting everyone to take one action, big or small, that benefits people, animals, and our shared environment. Our goal is to demonstrate that what Jane started is far from over.”
That approach reflects the way Goodall described her own legacy, Rathmann said.
“Jane’s legacy is not just what she accomplished, but what she set into motion,” she said, according to Mongabay. “She worked tirelessly to inspire hope for our planet, and to compel us to take action. That was intentional. Her legacy is a movement that continues through us all.”
Rathmann said Goodall often said she wanted to be remembered for “changing our understanding of the animal kingdom and our relationship to it, and for her youth program, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots.”
Roots & Shoots became a way to put responsibility in many hands. The program asks young people, and adults, to look at problems around them and respond locally.
Rathmann said that was also Goodall’s message to younger generations. “Think local, act local,” she would say.
She said Goodall was “never prescriptive” and instead pushed people to “find something small that you can do to make a positive change.”
The same thinking shaped Tacare, the institute’s community-led conservation model. Rathmann said it grew from Goodall’s response to deforestation around Gombe National Park, where local Tanzanians were asked to go into communities, listen to concerns, and work on solutions that helped both people and the local environment.
“It worked, and slowly, the forest started growing back,” Rathmann said. She said Tacare has since expanded to “over 100 villages, and other countries in Africa.”
Lilian Pintea, vice-president of conservation science at the Jane Goodall Institute USA, said he still thinks about the first time he sat with Goodall in her house in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, looking at aerial and satellite images by candlelight.
“I remember Jane saying, ‘This is magic’,” Pintea said.
He said those images helped track how forests, chimpanzee habitats, and human land use had changed over time. Today, he said, geospatial tools including satellite images, GIS, and cloud web mapping technologies are changing how conservationists understand and protect chimpanzee habitat.
“These insights are important to help conservation practitioners select the most cost-effective strategies and actions to address those specific threats,” Pintea said.
He said the tools can also show habitat loss in near-real time and give communities, governments, and other groups a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground.
Still, Pintea said the tools do not replace Goodall’s original method.
“When Jane arrived on July 14, 1960, in what is now Gombe National Park, Tanzania, she had nothing more than a simple pair of old binoculars, a pen, and paper,” he said. “Satellites, AI, mobile apps etc are just tools that enable us to continue to observe and understand nature, just from different perspectives and at different scales.”
For Dr. Deus Mjungu, director of JGI’s Gombe Stream Research Center, the new day carries a clear message.
“To me, this Jane Goodall Day represents hope and passion,” he said. “Everyone has a role to play, and because every small action matters, we can eventually change our world for the better, for animals, people, and the environment.”
Priscilla Shao, veterinary lab manager at JGI’s Gombe Stream Research Center, put it in daily terms.
“I believe we can carry Jane’s legacy forward by choosing every day to protect nature, inspire others, and believe that even small actions can change the world.”
