Learning Objectives

• To recognise the role of voluntary, community and pressure groups.

• To recognise how and why people may seek to manage environments sustainably, and to identify opportunities for their own involvement.

Where can you find an antelope the size of a rabbit, a snake that can fly, or a spider that eats birds? All in tropical rainforests, of course!

Tropical rainforests are home to the largest and the smallest, the loudest and the quietest of all land animals, as well as some of the most dangerous, most beautiful, most endearing, and strangest looking animals on earth.

The world’s ancient forests maintain essential environmental systems. They influence weather by controlling rainfall and evaporation of water from soil. They stabilise the climate by storing large amounts of carbon.

The Carbon Cycle

The Amazon jungle is the world's largest tropical rainforest.  The forest covers the basin of the Amazon, the world's second longest river.

The Amazon is home to the greatest variety of plants and animals on Earth.  1/5 of all the world's plants and birds and about 1/10 of all mammal species are found there.

The world's rainforests are currently disappearing at a rate of 6000 acres every hour (this is about 4000 football fields per hour)!

How many ‘football pitches’ of forest are destroyed per

day?

When these forests are cut down, the plants and animals that live in the forests are destroyed, and some species are at risk of being made extinct.

Rainforests also provide us with many valuable medicinal plants, and may be a source of a cure from some deadly diseases.

Forests can be managed without endangering rare species of plants and animals, and without risking global environmental damage. 

Companies should be made to plant new trees after they cut old trees down. 

We must be careful not to destroy the resources that people will need in the future.

Many animals from the rainforests are brought to our country illegally,  parrots and iguanas, for example.  

We should not buy these animals, since that encourages other people to bring in more animals.

The Jocotoco Foundation buys large areas of rainforest to protect the species that live there.

It owns and manages seven reserves in Ecuador, with another two planned.

The World Land Trust raises money to protect endangered rainforest.

With every £25.00 collected, they can buy one acre of land.

The Rainforest Café in London, is currently raising funds to buy its own large area of tropical forest .

Dian Fossey dedicated her life to saving Rwanda's mountain gorillas. Today, the organization she founded continues her efforts to save the last remaining gorillas of Central East Africa.

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International has done much to convince people about the value of conserving these beautiful animals. They train wardens to keep poachers away, and fund projects to ensure that local people find better ways of making a living.

• Literacy Activity

• Art Activity

• 5 Things to save the rainforests

• Matching Pairs Game (Vanishing animals)

pdf: Vanishing Animals

Write a Diamond Poem

When writing a diamond poem, words should form a diamond shape.

• Line 1: Noun• Line 2: Adjective, Adjective• Line 3: A sentence with an action• Line 4: Adjective, Adjective• Line 5: Noun—synonym of first noun on

line 1

MahoganyDurable, strong,

We must shield it from the logger’s saw,

Rich, warmHardwood

Diamond Poem

Henri RousseauThe following paintings are by Henri Rousseau, a French artist (1844-1910).

Henri Rousseau was a self-taught Sunday painter who retired from his job as a customs officer at the early age of 49.

He was completely self-taught, so his painting technique was different to other artists. He painted each colour one by one - first the blues and then the greens and so on - and he painted from the top to the bottom of the canvas.

Look closely at Rousseau’s paintings.

How would you describe his style?

Can you paint a picture of a rainforest, showing the diversity of wildlife in the rainforest in a similar style?

Can you list at least five things that you and your friends could do to:

Leaf-cutter, or parasol ants, can rightfully be called the world’s first farmers.

They climb trees up to 100-feet tall and cut out small pieces of leaves. They then carry these fragments, weighing as much as 50 times their body weight, back to their homes.Sometimes they need to travel 200 feet, equal to an average human walking about 6 miles with 5,000 pounds on his or her back! Theforest floor is converted to a maze of busy highways full of these moving leaf fragments.

These ants don’t eat the leaves they have collected, but instead bury them underground. The combination of leaves andsubstances that the ants produce such as saliva allows a type of fungus to grow. This fungus is the only food that they need to eat.

The aye-aye is a primate. It has front teeth which grow continuously, like a rodent. It has a long flowing tail like a fox. It has naked ears like a bat, which he uses to find prey through echolocation. One of its fingers is extremely thin, and has a long claw for extracting insects from tree holes.

Clavilla kills viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites

The Amatto (lipstick) tree is used to cure snake bites, to treat high blood pressure and as an insect repellent

Buenaventura – the richest ornithological site in south west Ecuador and also home to Puma, Ocelot and Howler Monkey. Rio Canande – home to Jaguar, Howler, Spider and Capuchin Monkey and numerous threatened and near threatened birds. Tapichalaca – home to the Jocotoco Antpitta, Spectacled Bear and Mountain Tapir, as well as nine globally threatened frogs and over 30 species of orchid found only in this reserve. Jorupe – supports more than 50 endemic birds. Utana – contains many endemic and threatened bird species, including Ochre-bellied Dove, Grey-headed Antbird and Ochraceous Attila. Yanacocha – the only location for the Critically Endangered Black-breasted Puffleg hummingbird and also home to Puma and Spectacled Bear. Yunguilla – The only location in the world for the critically endangered Pale-Headed Brush-Finch.

Mountain gorillas live in groups that contain one or two adult males (ages 12 years or older, called silverbacks), several younger males (called blackbacks), adult females, juveniles and infants.

Glossary

• species – group or type of animals• global - worldwide• endangered – in danger of extinction• conserving – protecting, saving• stabilise – keep the same• extinct – died out

Activities to complete this lesson include:

Rate this lesson here.

Click on the image above to view and/or download learning activities.

• writing a diamond poem• painting activity• listing ways to

save the rainforest

If you enjoyed this lesson, why not try:

Our Most Precious ResourceHow charities provide practical support in developing countries to enable access to water. The importance of clean water to our well being.

The Earth in Our Hands

How deforestation and burning fossil fuels is harming the environment. How to reduce our ‘carbon footprints’.

Useful Web Links

• http://www.fjocotoco.org/ - the Jocotoco Foundation• http://www.worldlandtrust.org/education/resources.htm - World Land Trust

and educational resources• http://www.worldlandtrust.org/education/top20.htm - Top 20 fundraising

ideas • http://www.gorillafund.org/ - The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund including project

information, fundraising tips, kids activities and stories• http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4520000/newsid_4528200/4528

240.stm - plans to build roads in Brazil threaten the rainforest

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_5110000/newsid_5119900/5119994.stm - colour-changing snake discovered

• http://www.rainforestweb.org/Rainforest_Information/Sites_for_Kids/ - invaluable educational resources and a list of websites for children all about the rainforest

• http://www.survival-international.org/ - Survival International protect the rights of tribal people in the rainforest and around the World