While a wide range of scientists studied the primates in the Gombe park, most of the forest habitat outside of the park was lost. The human population pressure drastically increased in the last 30 years.

Today one of Jane Goodall‘s main objectives is the reforestation of corridors linking the chimpanzees in the park with relic populations in the far off hills to try to improve the genetic pool. The overall Gombe population today is less then one hundred apes.

Karl Ammann misses the independent auditing, as far as the effectiveness, of most conservation projects. He claims many conservation organizations are today involved in “feel good conservation”: presenting success stories helpful with fundraising but often representing only the proverbial drop on a hot stone.

This questioning of the main stream approach to conservation issues in the third world led to Karl Ammann being named one of the “Heros of the Environment” by Time magazine and the “African Environmental Journalist of the Year” in 2007.