“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.
What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
Jane Goodall
The Back Story
We live in a world that can be dominated by worrying events and bad news, a world in which human activity is causing environmental and ecological damage that jeopardises future generations. Nature is disappearing and struggling and we humans have mostly forgotten that we depend on Mother Nature, that we are a part of nature. It is easy to get caught up in daily cares and activity and to expect others to fix the problems. It is easy to avoid thinking about consequences, to hope for the best.
Jane Goodall, who passed away on October 1st, 2025, often spoke about hope and her hope continues as an active hope that recognises that each of us can make a difference every day in how we choose to live. Jane was an inspirational person who through her long life made breakthrough discoveries about chimpanzee behaviour, became a champion for all
great apes, then all living things, the environment and humanity. She urged us to be peaceful and caring and to come together to change the world. She provided moral leadership in a world that needs simple, positive action.
With a sense of Jane her messages and legacy, we can make a choice to do things to support nature and each other. Even people who never met Jane and now never will can feel a part of a community.
Forests Of Hope Initiative
A small group of volunteers came together in South Australia to welcome Jane to celebrate her 90th birthday by planting a gum tree when she visited in 2024. She loved that it was part of a wider planting and would both provide habitat for other species, allow people to become stewards of nature and tell a story of hope and renewal. She loved that she was among young and first nations people, amongst nature.
The small group decided to encourage people to plant more native vegetation and to call their plantings, large and small, Forests Of Hope and to think of Jane and her messages of hope, action and compassion.
Over the last 2 years many thousands of native trees and shrubs have been planted and over 30 Forests Of Hope
registered. Partners and ‘champions’ have joined in and more and more sites are being identified across South Australia. The original template to plant 90 plants was to recognise Jane’s 90th birthday but in reality any number of extra native plants can only be good.
Examples include Forests Of Hope planted by Scouts SA, at Cleland Wildlife Park, mallee habitat for Regent Parrots in the Murraylands and a great thing is that many people and organised groups are already planting increasing amounts of native vegetation and they can choose to identify some of their planting as a Forest Of Hope to amplify Jane’s messages and stories and be part of a growing network, a community.