Jane Goodall — "We need to be voices for the voiceless, and advocates for those who cannot speak…"
We need to be voices for the voiceless, and advocates for those who cannot speak for themselves.
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More from Jane Goodall
"I think the most important thing is to have hope."
"Every day is a chance to make a difference."
"My mother always told me that if I wanted to achieve something, I had to work hard and never give up."
"Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved."
"Every animal has a right to live, and we should respect that right."
About Jane Goodall (born 1934)
British primatologist who in 1960 began the longest-running wild primate study at Gombe Stream, transforming our understanding of chimpanzees. Closely associated with Dian Fossey (mountain-gorilla researcher) and Birutė Galdikas (orangutan researcher; together with Goodall and Fossey one of Louis Leakey's 'Trimates'). For an intellectual contrast, see Walter Palmer, American dentist who killed Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe in 2015 — Palmer represents the trophy-hunting tradition Goodall's life's work has been organized against — the colonial-era hunter-naturalist worldview that treated primates and big game as specimens or trophies, which Goodall's Roots & Shoots and Jane Goodall Institute exist specifically to displace.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
People who have power, knowledge, or platforms must speak up for those who cannot defend or represent themselves — animals, ecosystems, marginalized communities, future generations. Staying silent when you have the ability to advocate is a form of complicity. Advocacy means actively using your position to amplify needs and injustices that would otherwise go unheard, unaddressed, and unseen by decision-makers.
Relevance to Jane Goodall
Goodall spent decades in Gombe studying chimpanzees who literally cannot speak to humans about habitat destruction, poaching, or captivity suffering. She transformed from field scientist into global activist precisely because she witnessed firsthand what animals endure without human defenders. Her Roots & Shoots program trains young people worldwide to become advocates for animals, communities, and environments unable to lobby for themselves.
The era
Goodall rose to prominence during the 1960s-70s environmental awakening — the era of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the first Earth Day (1970), and the Endangered Species Act (1973). Industrial expansion, deforestation, and Cold War development pressures were rapidly destroying habitats. No legal frameworks yet protected chimpanzees or tropical forests, making human advocacy the only available shield for wildlife facing extinction-level threats.
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