As of October 2023, Environmentalist and tech entrepreneur Dax Dasilva of the non-profit environmental alliance Age of Union has been admitted onto the Council for Hope of the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation. In addition, after a trip to Brazil with Goodall herself, Dasilva’s own non-profit Age of Union has partnered with the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation as well as the Juma Institute of Brazil to assist in protecting local Indigenous culture and territories.
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As of last month, Vancouver-born environmentalist and tech entrepreneur Dax Dasilva of the non-profit environmental alliance Age of Union joined the Council for Hope of the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation – a group of experts from across the globe hand-selected by renowned British primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall to continue her work for many years to come.
“I am delighted to welcome Dax Dasilva into the Council for Hope,” said Goodall in a press release. “His commitment to conservation is truly inspirational, and he brings a wealth of technical and practical knowledge and experience from Africa and particularly from Latin America to the Council.”
“It is an immense honor to join the Council for Hope and be part of an organization with such a profound commitment to the betterment of our planet,” Dasilva, Founder of Age of Union, told Earth.Org. “Dr. Jane Goodall’s tireless work in the fields of conservation and humanitarianism has always been an inspiration to me, and I look forward to contributing to her legacy.”
In choosing Dasilva for the Council, Goodall not only gained an invaluable member to her team, she also formed a partnership with Age of Union, Dasilva’s conservation powerhouse. Through his non-profit organization Age of Union, Dasilva has invested more than US$40 million of his own funds across 10 “grassroots” environmental projects in locations such as Peru, Indonesia, Haiti, Trinidad, the Congo, and Canada, utilizing an approach that focuses on giving the most power to those who actually live on the ground and call these places home.
“I think that that’s whyI really connect with Jane, because I really believe in projects that come from the ground up,” said Dasilva.
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Just recently, Dasilva and Goodall returned from a trip to Brazil, marking the partnering of their two organizations, as well as that of their mutual partnering with the Juma Institute – an NGO based in the Kaarimã Village within the Indigenous Territory of the Xipaia, located in Brazil’s Pará state, deep within the Amazon jungle. The trip was facilitated by filmmakers Richard and Anita Ladkani of Malaika Pictures, who have been working on a documentary in the Amazon over the past three years, and was in fact Goodall’s first foray into the thriving, yet still threatened jungle.
After a short journey to the Kaarimã Village, they met with Juma Xipaia, founder of the Juma Institute and a renowned environmental activist. Xipaia has been fighting for nature ever since she witnessed the construction of the Belo Monte Dam in the northern Amazon, which resulted in the displacement of 20,000 to 40,000 people as well as the diversion of 85% of river water to Indigenous communities.
“She’s been an activist for more than a dozen years and now she’s the secretary of Indigenous rights under Lula.” explained Dasilva. “ Her rise and prominence as an activist has been remarkable.”
The meeting itself took place in the hopes that Dasliva and Dr. Goodall could learn more about Juma’s organization, their goals, and how they hope to preserve and to pass along their knowledge to the next generation.
“We wanted to get a sense of the kinds of things that are important to them and what their goals are for preservation and for teaching,” said Dasilva.
Dr. Goodall and Dasilva also hope to one day implement a “Roots and Shoots” youth leadership initiative that would work with the Juma Institute to provide the tools and knowledge necessary for local indigenous youth to act as leaders, teachers, and to protect the very same ecosystems that they live in.
According to Jane Goodall’s Good for All News website, the Roots & Shoots program is active in almost 70 countries around the world, with over 12,000 active members in Canada alone. Since the program’s inception in 1991, millions of students across the world have “taken on the challenge of making the world a better place”.
“Since Jane started it, a lot of people that did the Roots and Shoots program in their youth are now influential ministers or people that are connected to the fight against climate change, or biodiversity loss,” said Dasilva. “By [fostering] those values of nature at a young age, I think it really stays with people and influences what they do with that love for nature and life.”
Featured image: Age of Union
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