Jane Goodall’s Conservation Legacy Lives on at GEOG

Professor Matthew Hansen and team collaborated with the Jane Goodall Institute to monitor forests and protect chimpanzee habitats across Africa.

The scientific and conservation communities are mourning the death of Jane Goodall, who passed away Oct. 1, 2025, at age 91. While her early fieldwork in Tanzania transformed our understanding of chimpanzees, her later years were marked by global collaborations that bridged traditional fieldwork with emerging technologies. Among her collaborators was Professor Matthew Hansen, whose research helped bring satellite monitoring into Great Ape conservation.

Goodall first visited the University of Maryland in 2012 to meet with the UMD–Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) team, led by Hansen, and discuss satellite-based forest mapping in the Congo Basin. Three years later, in 2015, Hansen and colleagues partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) to build a Decision Support System (DSS) for monitoring chimpanzee habitats across Africa. The system combined 30-meter Landsat satellite data, habitat-suitability models, land-use forecasts and field data collected by park rangers and community members using Android tablets.

"Working with the Jane Goodall Institute was an incredible opportunity,” Hansen said. “She did her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. If you look at the park from space, you immediately realize how small and vulnerable it is. She immediately recognized the power of earth observation imagery to identify and track chimpanzee habitat and became a strong advocate of monitoring in support of conservation.”

The goal was to give conservationists a near-annual picture of chimpanzee habitat health across 2.5 million square kilometers. Supported by NASA’s Applied Sciences Ecological Forecasting Program, the project allowed decision-makers to identify threats early and measure whether conservation efforts were working.

Hansen, together with JGI Vice President of Conservation Science Lilian Pintea and Janet Nackoney, then GEOG associate research professor, helped pilot the DSS to support JGI’s 30-year plan to protect 85% of known chimpanzee populations and their habitats. The effort reflected a growing emphasis on empowering local communities as partners in conservation.

The Jane Goodall Institute was also among the early partners in Global Forest Watch, an online platform co-developed by Hansen’s team with the World Resources Institute, Google and others. Using similar satellite data, the tool provides near-real-time alerts about forest loss and gain, helping JGI and its collaborators identify deforestation hotspots, guide conservation planning and respond quickly to emerging threats.

From left to righ, UMD Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice, Jane Goodall, GEOG Professor and Chair Tatiana Loboda and College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) Dean Susan Rivera backstage in October 2022 at UMD. Photo by Tom Bacho/BSOS

Goodall returned to UMD in 2022, meeting with GEOG Chair Tatiana Loboda, BSOS Dean Susan Rivera and Provost Jennifer King Rice before speaking to a packed audience at Memorial Chapel.

Her passing marks the end of an era in conservation, but her influence continues through the partnerships and tools she helped inspire. For Hansen, that legacy endures not just in maps and data, but in the shared mission of protecting life on Earth.

"She [Goodall] is a great example of a giving, passionate and tireless person, someone we should try to emulate in realizing a life of meaning and impact," Hansen said. "We are proud that the tools and partnerships we developed with the Jane Goodall Institute continue to guide conservation efforts and inspire the next generation of scientists.”

Main image: Jane Goodall receives a glass sculpture of a diamondback terrapin on her UMD visit in October 2022. (Photo by Tom Bacho/BSOS)

Published on Tue, 10/21/2025 - 10:42