Dr. Jane Goodall is renowned, of course, for her work studying and protecting chimpanzees. But she has also spent decades empowering communities that live on the edge of human settlement to safeguard their natural resources—or risk losing them forever.
Local Voices, Local Choices: The Tacare Approach to Community-Led Conservation, a forthcoming book from Esri Press by the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), details JGI’s holistic method for conservation. As Goodall explains in the introduction, the Tacare approach, which stands for “take care,” puts local communities in charge of preserving the natural world around them. Working with science and technology and with support from conservationists, local residents in central and western Africa who participate in Tacare projects grow to understand the impact they have on the environment and find ways to balance their communities’ needs with the surrounding ecosystems.
Written for conservationists, fans of Goodall, and anyone interested in environmental issues, Local Voices, Local Choices is a vibrant expression of Goodall’s vision and her hope that the Tacare method will be understood and adopted wherever there is a need for genuine, community-driven conservation. The 280-page book takes readers through the history of Tacare before turning to the stories of several local people who lead conservation initiatives, including poachers-turned-advocates for sustainable land management and villagers who work to preserve traditional ecological practices. How JGI staff and partners use geospatial technology to support these programs is a subtheme of the book.
Local Voices, Local Choices will be available in August both in hardback (ISBN: 9781589486461) and as an ebook (ISBN: 9781589486478).
