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Narrator: At NASA Earth Science, we wake up every day

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looking for new ways to expand our understanding

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about the Earth, to push the frontiers of science, and to share what

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we're learning to benefit people worldwide.

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Together with our partners, we put science into action.

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One of our partners, the Jane Goodall Institute,

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has a mission to protect chimpanzees and the

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world we all share. In 1960,

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Jane Goodall arrived on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in

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Gombe National Park, Tanzania.

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Goodall: I think of those early days when it was just me and the forest

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and the chimpanzees. It was so magic.

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Narrator: As her work studying chimpanzees progress, the land around the park was

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steadily deforested for timber and agriculture, severing the connection

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between chimpanzees inside and outside the park,

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a connection they need to survive.

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Deforestation is a problem for people, also.

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Goodall: It was clear there were more people living there than the land could support,

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they had overfarmed the land, which was

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infertile. Terrible soil erosion, little streams getting silted up.

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People clearly struggling to survive.

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And that's when I realized, unless we improved the lives of the people,

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we can't even start to try and save the chimpanzees.

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Narrator: People in the communities and

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at the Jane Goodall Institute needed a new perspective to

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see how changes had taken place over time.

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That's when the partnership began between the institute and NASA.

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They looked to space, using NASA's satellites that observe the Earth to gain

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a higher vantage point.

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Pintea: When we first got our Landsat satellite images from '72 and '99 we

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made a natural color composite of Gombe and area outside Gombe.

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And put them side-by-side and realized that lots of

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deforestation happened. You can see it. The villages lost maybe 90 percent

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80 percent of the forest cover. And they will tell

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stories about how the hills were covered

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in forest. But then when you show them a picture, it's very

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shocking to everybody, realizing what has been lost.

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Villagers were motivated to find new ways

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for sustainably managing their land and to protect

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the health of the area. The institute and communities

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started a forest monitoring program to provide training

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and equip community members with GPS-enabled devices

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to document forest activities.

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Together with the institute, villages developed land use plans

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for mapping where to build homes, what areas could support

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agriculture, and where it was best to harvest the forest sustainably.

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Goodall: Really really exciting to see the

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impact of these images on the villagers.

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And to see them sitting around and identifying sacred places,

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and that enabled them to do these land use management plans.

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And that's made all the difference.

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Narrator: Tree cover is returning, and Earth observations are

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now being used to show progress and inspire

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continued action. This helps protect soil needed for

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agriculture and clean drinking water, and safeguards

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forest health. It also ensures the long-term survival

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of Gombe's famous chimpanzees and those

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across western Tanzania.

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Goodall: I think that there's no question but that NASA with its satellite imagery

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used in the right way, it can really be really helpful for conservation.

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Narrator: At NASA, we continue to observe,

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examine, and advance the understanding of our home planet.

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We team with partners who use our science

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and solutions for improving life on Earth.