With this blog entry I want to start a new section on this blog: book recommendations. The first book I want to recommend is a book from Jane Goodall. As I very admire her work and as the title of the book fits perfectly to this blog, I want to start with "Hope for animals and their world".
Another reason why I want to start with a book from Jane Goodall is her recent visit in Munich. On the 21st of June in 2019 Jane Goodall visited Munich to not only celebrate her 85th birthday belated, but also to give her talk "Reasons for Hope" and spread her mission about conservation. Of course, it was a very inspirational evening and I want to take up later some thoughts she mentioned on that evening. But first of all, what is the book "Hope for animals and their world" about?
The book
The complete title of the book is "Hope for animals and their world – How endangered species are being rescued from the brink". The focus in the book is on HOW endangered animal species are rescued from the brink of extinction. Jane Goodall narrates in her book how dedicated people and their groups put all their efforts into the rescue of an animal species.
Be it the California Condor in the US, the Crested ibis in China or the Iberian Lynx in Spain. Just to name a few. Jane Goodall has many conservation stories to talk about. In some animal species only few individuals were left in the wild, while other animals were even already lost in the wild, but reintroduced successfully in their natural environment again.
Although the book is both inspirational and educational, for me, "Hope for animals and their world" is not a book to read from the beginning to the end all at once. Sometimes I had to put away the book for some time to think about an animal story. As there is so much different information, I selected a conservation story one by one with a break in-between.
This book is definitely for people who are interested in animals and the natural world. As Jane Goodall is such a positive thinking person and a great storyteller, the book is a very good read. This book is inspiring and informative at the same time, but especially – as the name suggests – gives hope.
By the way, there is even a chapter about golden lion tamarins. As you probably know – if you follow this blog – I have visited the golden lion tamarins in Brazil. Jane Goodall mentioned the Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado (AMLD) in her chapter and I’m so happy to have seen the project in person.
For me and for many others Jane Goodall became a very inspirational person. Not only as a chimpanzee researchers, but especially as a conservationist, activist and woman.
Message to the world
One of the most important messages by Jane Goodall on that evening in Munich was:
"Act locally."
You may have heard "Think globally, act locally". Well, Jane Goodall says, just act locally. If you consider all the problems here on this earth, one might think: "I’m just an only person? What could I do for a better world? My action does not matter." Therefore, Jane Goodall suggests to just look in front of your door step what you can improve. Furthermore, it might be too frustrating to see all those problems in the world which could leave you inactive at the end.
She adds to this:
"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."
You don’t need to be perfect, but look for something you are ready to improve. Maybe you want to support a NGO you trust. Or you want to avoid single-use plastics. Buy things from companies that do not destroy the environment or violate human rights.
The message is: You can do EVERY DAY something. And EVERY ACTION MATTERS!
If every person thinks like this, we can do a lot. This is the reason why she travels the world with her message to reach as many people as possible.
Jane Goodall has a lot to talk about and share. Luckily, she has written many books. If you want to know more about her early days in the forests of Africa, I highly recommend her other book "In the shadow of man".
Have you already read this book? What was your favourite story? Have you read other books from Jane Goodall? Let me know in the comments.
