It was a real delight to be able to host a reception at the British Residence tonight so that our contacts interested in environmental issues could come and meet Doctor (and Dame) Jane Goodall. I’m sure I don’t need to explain in detail to most readers of this blog who Jane is – but in short she’s the world-famous primatologist, anthropologist, ethologist (that’s a lot of “gists”) and author, who spent several decades of her life studying chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. She is also a UN Messenger of Peace since 2002. Jane now spends about 300 days annually travelling and talking about conservation and environmental issues – trying to persuade individual people that they can make a difference: which is also what we keep saying in the context of Climate Change.
Jane has been to Hungary on several occasions in recent years and is perhaps even better known here than in the UK. Her Jane Goodall Institute and its environmental education network Roots & Shoots has been active in Hungary since 2006 and last year supported work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This time she is visiting for the premiere of her latest film “Jane’s Journey” in Pecs (a European City of Culture this year), but found time to stop off in Budapest to see some of her many friends here. As always, she spoke movingly about her work and we all appreciated being in the presence of a true British icon. My Environment Attache colleague Kriszti Kocsis was inspired by what she heard to go off and found a branch of Roots & Shoots in the Embassy.
Watch this space!