The US government funding cuts will hit a chimpanzee conservation project nurtured by the primatologist Jane Goodall.
USAID has been subjected to swingeing cuts under Donald Trump, with global effects that are still unfolding. Now it has emerged that the agency will withdraw from the Hope Through Action project managed by the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI). USAID had pledged $29.5m (£22m) over five years to the project, which was designed to protect endangered chimpanzees and their habitats in western Tanzania.
Launched in November 2023, the project is intended to protect endangered chimpanzees through reforestation and “community-led methodology” in order to conserve biodiversity conservation and improve local livelihoods.
Its work is built upon Jane Goodall’s research.She “redefined species conservation” by highlighting the importance of cooperation between local people and the natural environment to protect chimpanzees from extinction.
According to JGI figures, chimpanzees have become extinct in three African countries, and overall population numbers have fallen from millions to below 340,000.
Goodall criticised Trump during his first term in office when he signed an executive order dismantling Barack Obama’s clean power plan. She called Trump’s climate agenda “immensely depressing”.
In collaboration with JGI Austria, Ecosia – a Berlin-based search engine that donates 100% of its profits to climate action – has offered $100,000 over the next three years to further TGI Tanzania’s Gombe reforestation project. The donation far from covers the original funding amount, but it is intended to pay for the planting of 360,000 seedlings, work put at risk after the project was defunded.
The director of JGI Austria, Diana Leizinger, said: “We refuse to abandon people and nature. Where hope could have been destroyed, we are helping it grow again.”
An analysis in April by Refugees International found that 98% of USAID’s awards related to the climate had been discontinued.
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USAID was approached for comment.
