The UAE’s plan to transfer seven elephants from Zimbabwe and house them locally is a good one, says long-time primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall.

In an interview after her talk on Tuesday night to a packed house at New York University Abu Dhabi, Goodall said the government had pledged to humanely house the animals. Under the circumstances, she approves of the transfer.

“Elephants are being killed in their native country,” she said. “These ones were in captivity. It sounds like a really nice enclosure ... As it’s a family group, I think it’s OK.”

Abu Dhabi’s Ministry of Environment and Water confirmed the order for the elephants. The animals, of different ages, were living in captivity and are from one family group, including a calf with its mother.

The ministry coordinated with the Scientific Authority in the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, to place the animals in an endangered species care and protection conservatory.

The purchase has been controversial, with claims the Zimbabwean government has been capturing animals from the wild and then selling them.

Goodall was invited to Abu Dhabi by Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the Secretary General of the Environment Agency, for the official local launch of her global youth network conservation programme Roots and Shoots, which she hopes to roll out to other emirates later. Roots and Shoots now has more than 150,000 groups active in 138 countries, from kindergarten to university. The programme began as a pilot project last January at two universities and seven schools, including Al Muna, Al Mushrif and the American Community School.

The activities involved include planting organic gardens in schools, she explained. This week NYUAD is also holding a “trashion show”, featuring garments made from recyclable materials.

“I hope Abu Dhabi is going to be a major Roots and Shoots player,” said Goodall. “People from all over the world come here, which means they can really help spread Roots and Shoots everywhere.”

Abu Dhabi is just one stop on a packed schedule for the 80-year-old activist. Since 1986, Goodall has travelled extensively, delivering a warning message about the planet’s future.

“Almost every day, I look at a small child and think how we’ve destroyed our planet since I was their age,” she said. “But we still have a window of time. It’s amazing how even the most destroyed ecosystem can come back to life.”

Goodall, who has spent 55 years studying chimpanzees in their natural habitat, greeted her audience on Tuesday night with the chimpanzee call for “Here I am, here’s Jane”.

It’s a testament to Goodall’s ability to inspire others that she drew enough people to her lecture to pack two theatres. Footage of Goodall had to be streamed live into the second theatre, to accommodate the overspill of people of all ages.

During the interview, she said she is optimistic about the conservation work being done locally.

“Abu Dhabi’s Environment Agency are planting a million mangrove trees, and they’re restoring animals to the desert. There’s also Masdar City – if you can make use of the sun, the possibilities are huge.” She’s also seen improvements in another “major” problem area, the traffic in exotic pets.

“The first time I came to Dubai was because chimps were being sold as pets there,” she said. “But I don’t think that’s been recorded now for 10 years.”

artslife@thenational.ae