If people try hard enough to help, there is hope for the world's animals, environment and people, said Dr. Jane Goodall to a crowd of almost 1,000 students at the 10th annual Roots and Shoots conference, organized by Science North.

Students, in Grades 4 through 12 from more than 60 schools across the north, attended the conference at Glad Tidings Tabernacle in Sudbury Sept. 23.

“We can move mountains if we don't give up,” the primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian said.

“Don't you think we can make this world right?”

Her organization has Roots and Shoots youth chapters in 111 countries. In Canada, more than 11,800 students have undertaken 2,550 hands-on projects to benefit humans, animals and the environment in their communities.

She recounted how, when she was only 10 years old in England, she had a passion for Africa, animals and writing.

“I wanted to go to Africa and live with the animals and write books. This was during World War Two. Everybody laughed at me. I was told I was the wrong sex even to undertake this. But my mother supported me. If you really want something and you have dreams, then work hard and never give up. You will find a way.”

She provided the youth a number of success stories from Africa where her non-profit organization, the Jane Goodall Institute, had worked with local villagers to improve their lives so they did not have to destroy the habitat of the animals - chimpanzees - she had studied from the early 1960s.

She also used Greater Sudbury itself as a model for inspiration.

She noted that Greater Sudbury's efforts in reversing environmental degradation over past decades is a success story she repeats wherever she goes around the world. At a press conference afterwards she showed media present that the city's re-greening efforts were featured in her new book, Hope for Animals and their World.

“I have two pictures in my new book from Sudbury, before and after (on the same site). The first shows black rock. The second, after the site was restored, shows green,” said Goodall. The book is available at Chapters.

She said when she shares the stage with the Dalai Lama from Tibet in Vancouver later this week, she will specifically mention the environmental successes here in Sudbury.

Goodall said any current economic and labour difficulties the city was experiencing were only short-term problems. They would end and residents should be proud of what they collectively have been able to accomplish in restoring their environment.

For more information, visit www.janegoodall.ca.