Forest protection worldwide - New learning pack by Deutsche Welle

Forests are often called the “earth’s green lung,” because they store CO2 and produce oxygen, thus helping to regulate the climate. But what happens if our forests disappear and what can we do to help protect them?

Whether we’re talking about deciduous, coniferous, rain or dry forests, a healthy forest is maintained by a delicate balancing act of give and take. Many people live directly from and in forests, which provide food, shelter and even medicinal plants for healing.

Still, when economic interests take over, this delicate symbiotic relationship can be thrown out of balance. Economic and environmental interests often clash in the forest because wood is a wildly popular and seemingly irreplaceable raw material for entire industrial sectors, including paper and pulp. But vast swathes of forest are also destroyed, not for their wood, but to make way for palm oil and soy plantations, cattle ranching and mining.

It is the second of 10 learning packs that will be launched by 2022 to tackle key aspects of climate change and environmental protection. The packs are being compiled by the Global Ideas team at German broadcaster Deutsche Welle as part of the German Environment Ministry (BMU)’s International Climate Initiative (IKI).

When its multimedia reporting project was launched in May 2017, with new funding from the IKI, Deutsche Welle sought new ways of getting children and young people around the world interested in climate change mitigation and species diversity. In collaboration with Germany’s Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU e.V.), it devised the idea of Global Ideas learning packs.

This most recent learning pack about forests is composed of four modules, which are thematically linked to each other; however, they can also be dealt with individually.

The pack includes several short films and picture cards on the topic, as well as background articles and an interactive web documentary. An accompanying booklet provides explanatory handouts and worksheets and for a better practical understanding there is also an instruction for an experiment.

All materials may be used by educational institutions for non-commercial purposes free of charge. The printed version oft he learning pack with a DVD can be ordered via e-mail to globalideas(at)dw.com.

In addition, Deutsche Welle offers online versions for download in German, English und Spanish.