Jane Goodall in Cambodia

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

Thursday, November 30, 2000

Renowned naturalist urges global rescue bid

KAY JOHNSON

--

World-renowned naturalist Jane Goodall called on international groups yesterday

to help poverty-stricken Cambodia preserve its remaining wilderness before the

lure of logging dollars sees them destroyed.

" One has to pray that the international community will somehow come to the

rescue in Cambodia, " Dr Goodall said.

 

In the country to help promote her worldwide campaign to teach children

environmental awareness, Dr Goodall expressed special concern for the Cardamom

Mountains, the million-hectare range in southwestern Cambodia that was cut off

from the outside world by civil war for decades. The area is now, however, under

threat from illegal logging.

 

Several new species and one previously thought extinct in the wild have been

discovered since the end of the civil war.

 

Dr Goodall, who first gained fame as a young woman living with chimpanzees in

Tanzania, said she did not blame developing countries such as Cambodia for

yielding to quick money.

 

Instead of lecturing poorer nations, industrialised countries should help buy

the land under threat. " We have to compete with the logging companies for these

concessions, " she said.

 

Such a programme could be in the pipeline for Cambodia. The US-based group

Conservation International has offered about US$500,000 (HK$3.9 million) a year

to fund a new national park in the Cardamoms if the Government cancels logging

contracts in the area.

 

Last month, the Government's environmental officials agreed to the plan - which

would establish one of Asia's largest nature preservation areas - but it must

still gain approval by the Council of Ministers.

 

It is a method that Dr Goodall knows well. She was a pioneer in setting up

national parks in Tanzania and elsewhere, and her Roots and Shoots education

programme tries to teach young people that they do not have to sacrifice nature

for development.

 

The 66-year-old environmentalist says she would still rather be living in the

forest, but instead she travels 300 days a year promoting environmental

awareness.

 

And though she exudes an air of gentility, she has the fierce heart of an

eco-warrior. She rants against the failure of the global warming summit in Kyoto

and decries globalisation as " positively evil " and one of the biggest threats to

the environment.

 

She owns no car and lives with her family on a modest estate in England - when

she's not on the road.

 

She admires the protesters who broke up the World Trade Organisation's Seattle

meeting a year ago, and said she would love to join the demonstrations herself

but believed she could never get the kind of access to world leaders she has now

if she took steps perceived as radical.

 

Instead, she acts as a free-lance ambassador for the environment and with

everyone she delivers the same message.

 

" The tools for change are knowledge and understanding, persistence and hard

work, love and compassion leading to a respect for all life, " she said.

 

" The message is that every individual makes a difference every day. "

http://www.scmp.com/news/