“The only advice I can give to young people is the advice my mother gave to me, because I can’t think of anything better,” Jane Goodall shared from her seat under a tree in Arusha, Tanzania, last July. “She said, ‘Jane, if you really want to do something like this, you’re going to have to work really hard. Take advantage of every opportunity. And if you don’t give up, I’m sure you’ll find a way.’”
We all know that Goodall did find a way — the British primatologist helped redefine humanity’s relationship with the animal kingdom, believing hope and action go hand in hand, and that both are required to heal our planet. She died Oct. 1 at age 91, but in an unaired interview from her final trip to Africa — made public in its entirety for the first time this week in honor of Earth Day — the activist offers us one more benediction for the future.
The interview is with Dax Dasilva, an entrepreneur and environmentalist with whom Goodall collaborated. The pair traveled together on Goodall’s first trip to the Amazon, becoming close friends. Dasilva, who’s now executive-producing a forthcoming documentary with the working title Just Me, Jane, got to know the real person behind the environmental icon — calling her “very funny.”
“The very first time I met her at Washington Dallas Airport on her way to the Amazon, she snuck up behind me as I was checking in at the ticket counter and said, ‘Don’t check in this young gentleman,’” Dasilva recounted to Nice News. “And then proceeded to ask me if I was carrying a body in my duffle bag, which was ridiculously oversized. So, you know, one minute I would be absorbing her wisdom and talking about nature and spirituality. And the next minute I’d be laughing my face off.”
Dasilva worked with Goodall on bringing Roots & Shoots, her youth program that helps participants identify and address issues in their communities, to Indigenous young people in the Brazilian Amazon. During their time together, Dasilva witnessed a physical embodiment of the veteran environmentalist’s ethos and impact. He described going with her to Saadani National Park in Tanzania, and watching 80 or so elephants emerge from the bush “almost to greet [her].”
“This is an area where at one point there were 15 elephants left from poaching, and through decades of conservation with her organization, there’s now over 400, and that’s because they took action,” Dasilva shared. “And that gives us so much hope for not just the elephants of that area but that nature can be restored wherever you put in that effort to save a place or to save a species.”
In the 20-minute conversation, Goodall acknowledged that trying to make a difference in the world as an individual, particularly in the face of what feels like constant bad news, can be overwhelming. So start right where you are, she suggested, wherever that may.
“Act locally first, and do something. What do you care about in your community? Maybe you don’t like the litter. Alright, do something,” Goodall said. “Organize beach cleanups. Get a group together to plant trees where there’s a little area of nothing growing. Just do something — that’ll make you feel better!”
Just Me, Jane chronicles the last two years of Goodall’s life as she traveled the world continuing to proselytize on behalf of the environment, “spreading her message of hope,” explained Dasilva, who launched conservation-centered nonprofit Age of Union through a $40 million donation in 2021. Documentarian Richard Ladkani, another of Goodall’s close friends, is directing, and Leonardo DiCaprio is attached as producer. No release date has been announced, but it’s expected sometime in 2026.
The film will offer viewers a more intimate portrait of Goodall than many of us are familiar with, Dasilva shared: “Just that experience of traveling and being with Jane, absorbing her wisdom, laughing with Jane. … It’s an important part of her legacy because we know Jane the icon, but this is a chance to get to know the person, to get to know Jane.”
Nearly six months on from Goodall’s death, it’s critical to continue her legacy in her stead, said Dasilva. “We need to value nature, we need to protect it. We are not separate from nature. We are a part of it,” he stressed, adding that Goodall was heavily invested in getting the screen-saturated younger generation to fully appreciate the natural world: “And so that’s why Roots & Shoots is so important to her. We have to be connected to nature. We are nature.”
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