World-renowned conservationist Jane Goodall will be establishing a new sustainability academy in Taipei. Part of the Conservation Projects of Asia initiative, in partnership with the Tang Prize Foundation, the Jane Goodall Sustainability Academy in Taipei represents Asia’s first experimental elementary school dedicated to conservation and sustainability.
Jane Goodall is teaming up with Taiwan’s Tang Prize Foundation to launch a brand new sustainability academy in Taipei. The school is part of a series of conservation projects that Goodall is funding across Asia with the Tang Prize grant of NT$10 million (US$360,000) she received in 2020.
According to the foundation, the upcoming academy marks “Asia’s first experimental elementary school that focuses on conservation and sustainability issues.” The school will educate elementary school students, teaching them topics around sustainability, conservation and fostering a connection with nature.
Kelly Kok, the executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute of Taiwan, says that the aim of the school is to “immerse children in nature” in order to “motivate them to love and protect the environment and the Earth.”
“It will be an environment where [students] will feel free to explore and where the three core principles underpinning JGI’s programs can be applied, which are to help children acquire knowledge, develop empathy, and aspire to become environmental activists,” said the Tang Prize Foundation in a statement.
Goodall’s Conservation Projects of Asia initiative is set to begin this month through December 2025, with no specific date for the opening of the Taipei-based school.
The other two projects that Goodall has decided to fund with her Tang Prize grant include Project Monyet in West Malaysia and the Hope Project in India.
While Project Monyet in the Malaysian peninsula will seek to educate local communities about the need to protect primates through events, workshops and scientific collaborations to document wildlife in the region, the Hope Project will run youth summit sessions to raise public awareness about nature conservation. Both initiatives will also create new educational materials and resources to inform locally-specific actions that can make a real impact and “rebuild the bond between human beings and the natural world”.
In a statement, the Tang Prize Foundation said that underlying all three projects is the goal to “further spread Dr. Goodall’s powerful message: our disrespect of nature led to crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss, and it is our responsibility to take care of the ecosystems on this planet.”
