March 1, 2022

Our New Strategy

by JGI Canada

Our society is now facing 3 global crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental inequity. These crises affect and magnify each other. And they are the focus of our new strategic plan.

If substantive action to address the issues had begun back when scientific evidence first emerged, we would not be staring them in the face now. We have used up whatever time we had, and now it’s imperative that real change happens quickly.

Against that context, we developed our new strategy to help ramp up action in Canada and in Africa.

We have a strong foundation to begin: the Jane Goodall Institute has nearly 40 years of experience in community-centred conservation with chimpanzees in Africa; Dr. Jane Goodall herself has over 60 years of experience working around the world, learning from local and Indigenous communities; and we have incredible, humbling partnerships with communities in Canada and Africa. We’re ready to scale our impact.

We’ve captured the essence of our work in our Purpose Statement: “To honour Jane’s legacy of hope through action, we mobilize widespread movements addressing the convergence of 3 crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental inequity across Canada and in support of communities in Canada and in Africa.”

Addressing Environmental Inequity in Canada

Addressing the 3 crises means inclusive and sustainable economic growth in Canada. The costs of avoiding this transition are staggering: rebuilding after increased droughts, fires, flooding, pandemics, loss of “ecosystem services”, and impacts on human health. These impacts often hit vulnerable populations the hardest.

Addressing environmental inequity to achieve more inclusive growth has three aspects to address here in Canada:

the underserved communities, who frequently cause little of the environmental impacts but suffer disproportionately from the impacts;
the environmental and social impacts “embedded” in the products we consume from developing countries;
saddling future generations with the impacts of our production and consumption choices, leaving them compromised lives compared to the privilege many of us in Canada have had.

Our Bias For Action

There is enough science, scientists, and data to confirm the extent of the crises we face. Businesses will say they need standardized measurements and much more data to drive action. That may be true, but operating under the threats from 3 crises, we no longer enjoy the luxury of time. While we will always remain driven by the science, we will use that science to compel businesses and individuals to act, and change their behaviours.

Our Work in Canada

The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada’s work in Canada addresses the convergence of the 3 crises by working with 4 key groups:

Youth – to help them push for more action sooner, so when they assume decision making roles in their careers they are already attuned to the issues.
Indigenous engagement – through serving community needs, supporting nature-based solutions for reconciliation and decolonization, and by integrating Indigenous perspectives across all our work.
General public – providing education and tools to help support people to act, and inspire others to do the same.
Businesses – to help inspire, shape, and activate more sustainable practices.

We hope you will join us, and accept our invitation of “Hope Through Action”.