This document discusses rainforests and their importance. It provides information on the diversity of plant and animal species found in rainforests. However, rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate, threatening many species. Several organizations are working to protect endangered rainforest areas and species, such as the Jocotoco Foundation which buys and manages forest reserves in Ecuador.

2. 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.

4. 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!

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. The Carbon Cycle

8. 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.

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

10. How many ‘football pitches’ of
forest are destroyed per day?

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

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

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

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

17. 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.

18. 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 .

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. • Literacy Activity
• Art Activity
• 5 Things to save the rainforests
• Matching Pairs Game
(Vanishing animals)
pdf: Vanishing Animals

22. 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

23. Mahogany
Durable, strong,
We must shield it from the logger’s saw,
Rich, warm
Hardwood

24. Diamond Poem

26. Henri Rousseau
The 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.

27. 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?

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

33. 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!
The
forest 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 and
substances 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.

34. 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.

35. Clavilla kills viruses, bacteria,
fungi and parasites

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

37. 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.

38. 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.

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

40. 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

41. If you enjoyed this lesson, why not try:
Our Most Precious Resource
How 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’.

42. 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_4528200/4528240.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