• Home
  • How We Work
  • Where We Work
  • News Room
  • About Us
  • My Nature Page

The Nature Conservancy in Africa - Conservation in Africa

The Nature Conservancy in Asia Pacific - Conservation in Asia-Pacific

The Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean - Conservation in the Caribbean

The Nature Conservancy in Central America - Conservation in Central America

The Nature Conservancy in North America - Conservation in North America

The Nature Conservancy in the United States - Conservation in the United States

The Nature Conservancy in South America - Conservation in South America

Q&A with Margo Burnham

 

Click to view Margo's photo slideshow from Tanzania!

Click to view some of Margo's best photographs of Tanzania in her slideshow.

Make a Difference
 

Support The Nature Conservancy's Africa Program!

You can help protect the lands and people of Africa when you join The Nature Conservancy today.

"Several chimps walked right out in front of us, adults and young ones, a mother clutching a baby. Those moments were amazing and precious. "

— Margo Burnham, Maryland/DC director of conservation programs

Go Deeper

The Conservancy strives to maximize its impact in Africa by joining with local partners. Learn more about these valuable partnerships.

A mother chimp cluches her baby in Gombe Stream National Park

 

Earlier this year, Margo Burnham, Senior Project Advisor in the Conservation Programs Division in Maryland/DC, traveled to Africa with three other Conservancy staff to facilitate a planning workshop at the Jane Goodall Institute in Kigoma, Tanzania. After the workshop, they visited Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, where Jane Goodall arrived in 1960 to begin her observations of chimpanzees. We asked Margo about her experiences there.

nature.org: What were you doing in Tanzania?

Margo Burnham: The Conservancy has been providing support to the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) for the past two years as it delves into the issue of how to conserve chimpanzees and their habitat and consider the needs of the human population sharing the area.

Conservancy staff have trained JGI staff and partners to conduct conservation action planning for the Greater Gombe Ecosystem, the expanse of forest and agricultural lands on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on the western border of Tanzania.

Margo and her colleagues pose for a photo in Tanzania

Nature.org: What did you find most interesting about your work with the JGI team?

Margo Burnham: JGI has a strong history of primate research as well as work on human health and poverty alleviation. Yet they are facing a situation where the habitat for chimps is disappearing outside the 10,000-acre park. Also, human and chimp interactions have been troubled over the years by disease passing between humans and chimps, chimps taking local crops from farmers’ fields, and occasional conflicts between humans and chimps.

Many of the residents of the area are also longtime refugees from Burundi and the Congo who have had their own survival challenges. In the face of these challenges, JGI’s team is pulling together all their experts and strategies and really changing the way they think about supporting the survival and compatibility of chimps and humans in this landscape.
 

Nature.org: Was there anything that stuck out in your mind about the people you met?

Margo Burnham: The people leading this conservation planning effort are the ones, the only ones, standing strong in the face of what may seem like the inevitable demise of the chimps. It’s a tremendous amount of pressure, and yet they are so determined, thoughtful, hopeful and grateful to all who provide support.
 

Nature.org: What was the most memorable moment of your experience in Tanzania?

Margo Burnham: When we arrived at Gombe Stream National Park after the planning workshop, we stepped into another world — more specifically into Jane’s home on the shores of the lake, a modest cottage almost frozen in time, though it’s been her home in the forest for decades.

We spent time with baboon researcher Anthony Collins, who’s been conducting research there for about 30 years, and with Shadrack Kamenya, bioanthropologist and director of JGI’s Gombe Stream Research Center. The stories they told of chimp research, of Jane’s experiences, and the colorful stories of chimp and baboon behavior were an incredible treat. But tracking the chimps was certainly the most memorable.

 
Nature.org: Did you get to see chimps in the wild?

Margo Burnham: The second morning we followed Anthony and park ranger Felix up the steep forested slopes of the park. We climbed and descended for hours in the heat, listening to radio reports from researchers up in the mountains, and then we got word that the chimps were on the move and might go out of range if we didn’t hurry. So, although exhausted, we started running.

Finally, after a little break, we started walking along a flat trail and, to our right, slightly upslope, small dark forms moved through the underbrush alongside us. Several chimps walked right out in front of us, adults and young ones, a mother clutching a baby. Those moments were amazing and precious.

 

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Margo Burnham/TNC (A mother chimp clutches her baby in Gombe Stream National Park); Photo © Margo Burnham/TNC (Lake Tanganyika); Photo © Margo Burnham/TNC (Margo and her colleagues).