Jane Goodall Institute China
top > Partners > 5 September 07
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), in all its locations around the world, works to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things. It strives to create healthy ecosystems, promote sustainable livelihoods and nurture new generations of committed, active citizens.
One of JGI’s programs helping to achieve this goal is Roots & Shoots (R&S), a non-profit environmental and community education program for youth. Following Dr. Jane Goodall’s example, R&S students take action to make positive changes. Since its inception in Tanzania in 1991, R&S has made a long-term impact on many young people, teaching them that they have a role to play in this world and instilling in them a new interest in protecting the environment and animals. Members of the R&S network create service learning style projects based on their own ideas and concerns, and at the same time develop leadership skills and a stronger sense of environmental stewardship.
Foreign teachers began to facilitate students in environmental education activities in China in 1994, using the name of JGI’s Roots & Shoots program. Since then, and the first of Dr. Goodall’s annual visits to China in 1998, JGI China has responded to a growing need and interest in environmental education outside of the regular school curriculum in Chinese schools and universities, by promoting the participatory, child-led, extra-curricular approaches of the international R&S Program. In 2000, the JGI China office was established in Beijing, liaising with teachers and students all around China to promote and nurture the R&S program. JGI China has since opened an office in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to enhance the program in that area, with a special focus on rural environmental education. Southwest China, where Sichuan is situated, is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, and conservation education, particularly in rural areas surrounding forests and nature reserves, is imperative for its preservation. Prior to establishing the Chengdu office, JGI China staff had been working in villages surrounding Sichuan’s Baishuihe Nature Preserve for over two years through the Pride Campaign program, for which it was awarded a Ford Motor Conservation & Environmental Award Honorable Mention in 2006.
Due to the spreading popularity of Dr. Goodall, thanks to her annual visits to China, as well as the growing reputation of the R&S network, new groups continue to “sprout” all over the country. There are now over 300 R&S groups all around China; and all of them are based on a spirit of volunteerism, demonstrating that individuals can make a difference through active participation. At the same time, JGI has established and continues to build relationships and grassroots projects with government agencies, teachers and schools, communities and non-profit organizations in China. Recently, JGI China welcomed a team of graduate students from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, to conduct an evaluation of the R&S Beijing program’s impact on the environmental consciousness of participating Beijing area youth. Their conclusion was extremely encouraging, reporting that R&S is truly turning its members into active and responsible environmental stewards. R&S students have more confidence and leadership skills, and a stronger tendency to increase their knowledge and awareness about issues regarding the environment and animals.
In addition to individual R&S student group projects, the JGI China R&S offices also offer special programs and events to boost the activities of our R&S network. The Beijing Office, in 2007, has launched a city-wide water conservation education curriculum and program in Beijing area middle schools. Other special programs of the Beijing office include a R&S zoo enrichment volunteer program, an environmental English activity, summer service learning programs, and teacher and volunteer trainings. The Chengdu office, has an ongoing program with WWF to strengthen and expand existing rural environmental education programs, as well as a mentorship program linking university students with R&S student groups in primary and middle schools. Roots & Shoots in China has also established a long-term relationship with the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), to host animal welfare education workshops for local teachers in several locations across China.
JGI China’s website is as follows: www.jgichina.org
Roots & Shoots’ website in China is: www.genyuya.org
Roots & Shoots’ Chinese blog is: http://hi.baidu.com/genyuya
