Coffee sales helping chimpanzees, Goodall says.

Decades after Jane Goodall began her efforts to protect Tanzania's endangered chimpanzees, she found a solution growing right beneath her nose: The forests surrounding the famed chimps grow some of the best coffee in Tanzania. At 1,400 meters above sea level, the region provides a cool enough climate for beans of "giddy, honey-toned, floral sweetness as fresh but voluptuous as a tropical morning," according to Coffee Review.

Since the savory discovery about three years ago, U.S.-based coffee companies such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Starbucks have helped improve and expand the region's bean production. As a result, growers are receiving double compensation for their crop, and the additional income is encouraging greater community support for Goodall's conservation efforts.

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Within Gombe Stream National Park, about 100 chimpanzees continue to face the threats of habitat loss, poaching, and inbreeding. An estimated one-third of the population has been lost since Goodall's work there began four decades ago, and more than half of the chimps' original habitat has been converted into farmland.

"All problems are related--poverty, increasing populations, lack of good sanitation. ... Did the [communities] care about conservation? Of course they did, but it was not a priority. They cared about health; they cared about their children," Goodall said. Her group is now working with The Nature Conservancy and regional farmers to preserve a 670-square-kilometer matrix of ecosystem corridors and habitat patches. Conventional farms would tend to block the corridors, but coffee can be grown in forest shade, and the chimps do not eat coffee beans.

The Jane Goodall Institute says the coffee income has helped the communities build schools and expand agricultural activities without deforesting the landscape. During a visit to Gombe several months ago, Goodall said she saw true signs of hope: "I was able to look over the valley to see reforestation, such is the resiliency of nature. I can see this forest, the corridor I've been talking about. I had tears in my eyes. It was really beautiful."