World-renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall has kicked off her tour of Australia in Perth meeting students.

Dr Goodall is known for her work studying, and living with, wild chimpanzee tribes in Africa decades ago.

Despite having had no formal training in the area, her observations and subsequent work on the social and family interactions of the primates has been credited with revolutionising the way many think about animals and humans.

Now Dr Goodall travels almost 300 days of the year sharing all that she learned during her decades studying primates.

In Perth she met students from across Western Australia involved in Roots and Shoots, her educational program designed to empower the younger generation to make more considered decisions for a brighter future.

"So many animals now are endangered and so it's the young people in charge," she said.

"Which is why I'm working to develop Roots and Shoots — it's in 99 countries now.

"I want it in every school around the planet, especially in diverse cultures and religions, so that everybody realises we're all one human family."

Dr Jane Goodall, 83, still travels the world most of the year. ( ABC News: Briana Shepherd )

The 83-year-old said while the constant travel could get very tiring, she had a job to do.

"I am determined, I am not going to give up," she said.

"We have people who are destroying this planet and we have to fight them and it's the youth, it's their world in the future."

The program began in WA nine years ago and now has 14 schools on board, the most of any state in Australia.

Roots and Shoots WA coordinator Bill Waterers said the student-driven program was based on three principles: animals, people and environment, and each school was free to decide how they would engage.

"It's teaching them to care for the environment, it's teaching them to care for animals and it's teaching them to care for each other," Mr Waterers said.

"Dr Jane's whole passion is animals and students, kids, she believes that adults have stolen the world from the children and the children can now … win it back."

'One person really can make a difference'

Fourteen schools across WA have signed up to Dr Jane Goodall's education and awareness program. ( ABC News: Briana Shepherd )

Mr Waterers said students across the state were deciding on some wonderful projects — some planting trees, others recycling, with some even growing only native plants to attract birds and butterflies.

"It's all about getting kids back into nature, getting kids to care about animals," he said.

"What I usually say to the kids is that at some stage in their life their children are going to say to them, 'Mum, Dad, did you ever see a live orangutan? Did you ever see a live elephant? And what did you do to help them?'

"I think is the most important question because my grandchildren and their children may never ever see an animal in the wild unless the youth of today starts to take action."

For Holly Thompson, primate supervisor at Perth Zoo, Dr Goodall was an inspiration in more ways than one.

"Dr Jane Goodall being a primatologist has really led the way for me and so many of my staff here at Perth Zoo into our career," she said.

"I feel so fortunate to have seen a wild Sumatran orangutan, a wild Sumatran elephant but a lot of these kids won't get that opportunity unless we start to make change now.

"Dr Goodall shows you that ."