Celebrate with Jane the International Year of Forests!

The Minister of Environment, Land and Marine Areas, Rosa Aguilar, invites you to the event "For a Sustainable Forest" to commemorate the International Year of Forests. The event will include a conference by primatologist Jane Goodall, Dame of the British Empire and will be led by Juan Ramón Lucas, director of the program "En días como hoy," of Radio Nacional de España. 

You are all invited to listen to Jane Goodall speak in the Sala Goya of the Real Fábrica de Tapices in Madrid, the 26th of May at 7:00PM. 

To attend the event you must sign up HERE !

Hope to see you soon!

It’s spring and the bees need us!

Are the flowers blooming? Do the birds wake you up in the morning? Is it time to get out the summer clothes?

IT'S SPRING!

This spring we have an idea for you: plant some flowers on your balcony, in your patio or in the yard…The bees need them!

A recent study funded by the United Nations has just announced that bees across the world are in danger, which means we too may also be in danger. Bees pollinate more then 70% of the plants that give us food (among other pollinators like butterflies and birds.)

In many parts of the world bees colonies are suffering from a sickness known as Colony Collapse Disorder as are threatened by insecticides as well as air pollution.

We must remember that bees give us an irreplaceable service of pollination that is worth billions of Euros!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Plant on the balcony, in the patio or in the yard a tree that flowers in spring time, some Rosemary or lavender, flowers like daisies, or herbs such as mint, basil or chives.

Buy at least one organically grown product every time you shop. You’ll be supporting farmers who avoid using insecticides and chemical substances and instead use natural growing methods that don’t harm the bees.

Go to school by bus, metro or on foot! Air pollution also affects bees. They need clean, pure air in order to detect scents from far away.

Have some more ideas on how to help the bees?

Share it here with us!

Turn off the lights and turn on the planet!

Celebrate Earth Hour, the largest global movement to fight climate change, this Saturday at 8:30pm.

with your Roots&Shoots group

or

with friends

or 

with the whole family

either 

at home

or

on the street

Turn off the lights and turn on the planet!

A BIG WARM WELCOME to the new Roots&Shoots group: "EL CUARTO HOCICO"

We are pleased to present a new group of Roots&Shoots Spain:

R&S “EL CUARTO HOCICO”

El Cuarto Hocico from Cesar Bona on Vimeo.

This amazing group of 12 boys and girls are in 4th grade in the town of Muel in Zaragoza, Spain has decided to create a virtual animal shelter.

What a great idea!

Their magnificent BLOG is not only full of concrete and practical advice so everyone can take better care of animals, the group also shares true stories and fun fact about all kids of animals.

The group!

For example, if you want to know what to do if you find an animal HERE they explain the difference between a an animal pound and an animal shelter. And in the "Animal facts" section we learned that the elephant is the only animal with four knees that can't jump :-0 HERE is more fun trivia from the animal kingdom.

But perhaps the best part of this virtual animal shelter called the Cuarto Hocico are the true stories that you find in the section "Stories that happened to us." Do you want to learn about SEBAS THE STRAY DOG? Well HERE Raúl, ALejandro and Pilar tell the story...you're going to love it and there is so much to read, learn and enjoy!

Welcome "EL CUARTO HOCICO" to Roots&Shoots of the Jane Goodall Institute Spain!

Marc Bekoff , leader of a Roots&Shoots group and personal friend of Jane, has written in collaboration with the University of Colorado Dever's Children Youth and Environments project a new book about children and animals.

There are drawings and pictures of R&S groups from all over the world...

It also speaks of a variety of R&S projects....Here is R&S Spain with Professor Roots!

And the book includes the Movilízate por la selva campaign! Look at our friends from R&S group Lwiro in the Democratic Republic of Congo where part of the money raised in the campaign goes...

The best thing about the book is that everyone can download it and read it for free HERE.

If you would also like to read more work by Marc Bekoff, he also wrote a book with Jane Goodall: The Ten Trusts.

A Warm Welcome to R&S Heri Kwetu

From Bukavu, located in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, comes news from the R&S group of Heri Kwetu.

Heri Kwetu is a center that takes in and offers education to handicap children and youth. It was created by Teresa Sáez more than 30 years ago in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital Kivu Sur. Teresa, from Spain and part of the religious order Compañía de María, started this center to offer an opportunity to those who are the most in need and marginalizaed. Today Heri Kwetu is still open and continues to grow.

In July 2010 after learning about the work of the R&S group Lwiro (created by Laia Dotras of the Jane Goodall Institute Spain) Teresa proposed the idea of starting a R&S group to the boys and girls of Heri Kwetu. Over the summer the group met a number of times to see what were the environmental needs and problems in their area. 

They decided that something had to be done about the extensive erosion on the hillsides of their neighborhood. Trees had been cut to make room for houses made of mud and metal. The group started out by informing neighbors and involving neighborhood representatives by letting them know the activities they planned to develop. The R&S group Heri Kwetu got to work on the poorly eroded area, cleaning it up and preparing it for a nursery for trees. Moreover, instead of using plastic bags to contain the seedlings, they used bags made of dried banana leaves. Today the group is taking care of the small trees and, when they’re large enough, the trees will be transplanted and their roots will help retain the soil.

At the moment the Roots&Shoots group at Heri Kwetu has 25 girls and 34 boys as members. They get together on Sundays and review their projects and other proposals that they can do to improve their surroundings. Worried by the large amount of plastic bags that are thrown into the streets, the group has started a campaign asking neighbors to give their bags to the R&S group instead of throwing them away into the streets. R&S Heri Kwetu then cuts up the plastic bags into strips to crochet them into beautiful bags which are longer lasting y more useful than the ones that invade the streets of Kadutu. This way they keep the neighborhood clean and give a new use to a once polluting object.

R&S Heri Kwetu hopes to meet with R&S Lwiro to exchange ideas and experiences and bring together their energy to make their communities a better place to live. Both have received material and support from Roots&Shoots groups in Spain and the Jane Goodall Institute. These groups are a great example of effort, commitment and passion, working in their area with few resources but an enormous desire to make the world a better place.

Welcome!

Congratulations R&S Madrid!

Jane Goodall distinguishes Spain’s most active R&S Group of the year.

Jane, in her last visit to Spain in November, saved a special moment during her speech at the National Library (Madrid, Spain) to present an award for extraordinary work in a number of activities to the group Roots&Shoots Madrid.

The volunteer group of R&S Madrid, led and coordinated by Marisa Mariñán and Diego Rivera, has more than 20 members from an array of different backgrounds including environmental sciences, biology and psychology.

Three years ago they formed their group to promote Dr. Goodall’s philosophy through workshops and presentations in different institutions such as schools, hospitals and universities. Along with the many other activities this group organizes to support the Jane Goodall Institute Spain, R&S Madrid has become our most active group in Spain.

The energy of all the group’s members and the unbeatable motivation of Marisa and Diego are a fine example to many of the other volunteers at the IJGE. At the moment this group is working with the program BioDiverCiudad and the cell phone recycling program Movilízate por la selva in addition to holding monthly activities for hospitalized students.

The entire team of R&S Spain and all the R&S Groups in Spain join Jane in this special recognition…

Congratulations!

Want to learn more about the R&S Madrid group?

Visit their blog:

rootsandshootsmadrid.blogspot.com