Dr. Jane Goodall, a renowned ethologist, best known for her long-term study of chimp behaviour in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park, visited Dubai’s leading school of ecology on Friday 27th January, providing students with an incredible opportunity to learn from one of the world’s leading experts on environmental conservation and animal behaviour.
Receiving Dr. Jane were students from Arbor’s Secondary School, Principal Brett Girven and Dr Sa’ad Al-Omari, the Arbor School’s Chief Executive Officer and a recognised Palaeoclimatologist.
Dr. Jane was given a tour of the Arbor Biopark by students who also demonstrated to her the many crops grown there as part of the Farm to Plate initiative. Following the tour, they dined on a multi-course vegan meal made on site by Micheline-trained chef Anna Marie Herreras and including produce from the school farm.
The Farmhouse at Arbor, run by Chef Anna, is renowned for its dedication to sustainable agriculture and use of locally sourced products in its parent café and school lunches. Dr. Jane appreciated a meal that was both creative and environmentally friendly, with each dish created to bring out the tastes of the food from the school farm.
After lunch, the Arbor School welcomed Roots & Shoots members from Dubai Schools Mirdiff and Al Barsha, the American School of Dubai, Rawafed Private School, Dubai British School, Horizon International School, Abu Dhabi Indian School, and GEMS United Schools to the school’s auditorium for a special presentation by Dr Jane Goodall, facilitated by Principal Brett Girven.
The founder of Roots & Shoots and the Jane Goodall Institute, a global wildlife and environmental conservation organization that is dedicated to promoting understanding and protection of great apes and their habitats, began her talk by giving a pant-hoot, a loud chimpanzee call. Dr Jane then detailed her life story and the most important scientific observations of modern times in a remote African rainforest where she “witnessed a creature other than a human in the act not just of using a tool but of making one.”
Brett Girven, Principal of the Arbor School, commented, “Dr. Jane told a story of hope – the hope that we can make a difference by simply starting. Large or small, just do something which will bring us closer to the more beautiful world we know is possible. If the impoverished families living on the periphery of Gombe in Tanzania can do it, then surely, we, in our privileged position can do it. In fact, we MUST do it.”
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