In this file photo taken on January 22 Jane Goodall speaks at the Securing a Sustainable Future for the Amazon, during the World Economic Forum in Davos. — AFP

World-renowned British primatologist Jane Goodall says the coronavirus pandemic was caused by humanity’s disregard for nature and disrespect for animals.

Goodall, who is best known for trail-blazing research in Africa that revealed the true nature of chimpanzees, pleaded for the world to learn from past mistakes to prevent future disasters.

During a conference call ahead of the release of the new National Geogra­phic documentary “Jane Goodall: The Hope”, the 82-year-old also said everyone can make a difference.



It’s also the animals who are hunted for food, sold in markets in Africa or in the meat market for wild animals in Asia, especially China, and our intensive farms where we cruelly crowd together billions of animals around the world. These are the conditions that create an opportunity for the viruses to jump from animals across the species barrier to humans.


But in Africa it will be very difficult to stop the selling of bush meat because so many people rely on that for their livelihoods.


We have to realise we are part of the natural world, we depend on it, and as we destroy it we are actually stealing the future from our children.

Hopefully, because of this unprecedented response, the lockdowns that are going on around the world, more people will wake up and eventually they can start thinking about ways they can live their lives differently. Everyone can make an impact every single day.


(Also consider) ways that you could perhaps help alleviate poverty because when people are poor they can’t make these ethical choices. They just have to do whatever they can to survive — they can’t question what they buy, they must buy the cheapest, and they are going to cut down the last tree because they are desperate to find land on which they can grow more food.”