Lesson video

Hi there, thank you for joining me.

I am Ms. Roberts, your geography teacher, and today's lesson is from our unit of work about a country in Africa called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This lesson is about the impacts of resource exploitation in this country.

The aim of today's lesson is for you to be able to explain the impacts of resource exploitation, whether they are environmental impacts, social impacts, or economic impacts.

Let's take a look at some important terminology that you're going to hear and use in the lesson today.

Firstly, natural resources.

Natural resources are produced by our planet.

They come naturally from earth without any influence at all from humans, no manufacturing involved, and humans take those resources and use them for their own needs.

Exploitation, exploitation happens when something or someone is used by someone else for their own personal benefit or gain.

Deforestation is the complete removal of trees in an area of forest or even an entire forest in some cases.

Logging is one of the main causes of deforestation in lots of places around the world.

Logging is when vast areas of trees are cut down in order to obtain the timber from the trees themselves.

It's an economic gain that is made.

And finally, corruption.

Corruption is dishonest behaviour.

It happens when people who are in a position of power or authority can do something to help them gain something on a personal level.

This lesson is going to have three parts today.

Each part will look at a different type of impact of resource exploitation.

First, we will explore the environmental impact.

Then we will explore the social impact and then we will explore the economic impact.

So let's begin then by thinking about how the environment of the DRC is impacted by resource exploitation.

Here we can see a map of the DRC.

It shows the biomes of the DRC shaded in different colours and this large green biome that you can see in the middle is an area of the tropical rainforest.

In fact, 65% of the land area of the DRC is covered in tropical rainforest.

That's about 107 million hectares of land.

The people of the DRC throughout history have used the tropical rainforest as a natural resource.

They rely on it as a source of food.

It provides shelter to them.

It provides shade from the sun.

Resources that are obtained from tropical rainforests include wood and timber.

The tallest rainforest trees are a special type of hardwood, for example, mahogany, and they are in high demand for furniture making.

Other rainforest trees and plants that are woody are used locally as firewood or fuel wood.

They use it for cooking, for keeping warm.

The rainforest also provides charcoal, rubber, fruits, and medicinal plants and herbs as well.

Within the tropical rainforest in the DRC, logging is a huge industry.

Logging can happen both legally and illegally.

Commercial logging is an economic process.

This is when trees are legally cut down because of their hardwood and they are used to generate money.

Logging involves large vehicles like the one you can see here, heavy trucks.

They drive through the forests and that in itself leads to soil erosion and even more of the rainforest land having to be cleared to make the roads for the trucks to travel on.

So commercial logging is not only a threat to the rainforest because of the trees that are cut down, but because of all the additional problems that come with it, the soil erosion and the land clearance and the road building.

Would it therefore be true or false to say that the hardwood trees used for timber production are the only natural resource of the tropical rainforest? What do you think? This is false.

They are not the only resources at all.

Hardwoods are a very commercially viable product.

They're worth a lot of money, but there are lots of other resources in the rainforest as well.

Natural resources like medicinal plants, fruits from the rainforests, other byproducts of the trees like rubber.

Logging of rainforest trees isn't the only threat in the tropical rainforest.

Trees are cleared for many other reasons as well.

They include farming, mining, building roads, building settlements, and this all contributes to deforestation.

In 2023, half a million hectares of land of tropical rainforest in the DRC was deforested.

This has major impact on the biodiversity of the biome.

That means it has impact on all of the living things, plants and animals alike that live there.

Look at this picture, isn't it beautiful? This is an okapi, a very unique animal, which is only found in the DRC.

Outside of zoos and animal parks, you won't find them anywhere else in the world.

Deforestation has massive impact on species of the rainforest because their habitat is being lost.

Deforestation not only removes the trees, but it also rips away soil and other ground dwelling plants and vines and things like that that grow in the rainforest.

This means that lots and lots of rainforest species are now endangered.

They're at risk of extinction.

If extinction happens, species can unfortunately die out.

This is true for many, many different species, from the teeniest, tiniest insects, to tree frogs to great gorillas, forest elephants, and even these beautiful okapi.

Potential extinction of such species is a very real threat.

Let's stop here and check our learning.

Can you answer this multiple choice question for me? Which of these are negative consequences of deforestation? Be careful there could be more than one answer.

Pause the video and work through now.

Ready? Let's have a look.

I think there are two correct answers here.

Did you choose two as well? Options A and D are the correct answers.

Negative consequences include habitat loss for animals and birds, as well as the endangerment of plants and animal species.

Okay, time to complete an activity together about these environmental impact.

I would like you to make notes in the table to answer questions that are posed about deforestation.

The first question is, why is tropical rainforest cleared? And the second question is, what are the environmental impacts of that deforestation? You can pose the video, you can look back through what we've looked at so far to help you, and you can work with a partner if you wish.

When you finish making your notes, unpause the video and I will share an example with you.

Ready? Okay then let's have a look at some examples.

You may have had ideas like this too.

Why is the tropical rainforest cleared? People want the natural resources of the rainforest so they can make money from them.

Logging cuts down trees for timber, loggers need roads for their trucks.

What are the environmental impacts of deforestation? The loss of trees leads to loss of habitat for animals and birds.

Species become endangered and face extinction.

Biodiversity is reduced.

You may have had similar ideas in your answers.

We are going to move on now and look at the social impact of resource exploitation.

So these are impact related to humans.

Take a look at this map of the DRC, which shows where some natural resources are mined.

The DRC has an abundance of natural resources.

It has areas that are very, very rich in things like precious metals, gems and stones, and those types of natural resources and not found growing on the surface like the rainforests.

Those resources are found deep underground.

In order to extract them from the ground, mining has to take place.

That means digging.

So the mining industry has grown, has flourished in the DRC in the areas close to where the natural resources are found.

Mining creates employment for people, so it gives them jobs and that's great, but this doesn't mean that everything is positive.

There are also social impacts, and there are social impacts because of the exploitation of workers in mines.

Let's find out some more about this.

So what is exploitation? In many cases, exploitation is related to a lack of safety regulations.

This means that all too often there are very dangerous conditions on mining sites.

In the DRC men, women and children work in mines.

They can work very long hours in very hot daily temperatures.

They often work without machinery, so they are doing jobs like mining by hand or using very basic tools.

Workers don't have any training for their role.

They don't have any safety equipment to protect themselves either.

The picture shows two miners at a cobalt mine in the DRC.

Perhaps you can pause the video in a moment to look at it more closely, but you will see they don't have helmets, they don't have gloves, there are no machinery to help them.

There are lots of loose and jagged rocks all around them, which could potentially cause accidents.

And they are carrying those very heavy bags of extracted minerals around by hand.

This is very hard, intense labour and these miners earn very, very little money for the work that they do.

Let's see what you can remember.

Can you answer this multiple choice question? Who works in mines in the DRC? Adults, adult males, adults and children, or adults and animals? Make your choice.

Have you decided? The correct answer is option C, adults and children work in mines in the DRC.

The process where children are employed is known as child labour.

Child labour is very common in the DRC, not only in mining, but in other industries, agriculture for example.

Child labour doesn't only happen in the DRC either.

It happens in many nations around the world.

What this means is that those children who are employed and going to work are not going to school.

Sometimes they may work and go to school, but often it's not their choice whether they do or don't work or go to school.

Jacob says, "It's just so hard to imagine going to work instead of going to school." And he'd really miss seeing his friends.

But what do you think about this? Why do you think children have to work in countries like the DRC? And what impacts do you think it might have on them? Why don't you pause the video now and have a little chat with your partner, see what they think and share your opinion as well.

Let's continue and find out a little more about child labour.

As I mentioned, children in the DRC can work in a variety of industries from mining to agriculture, and this means that they aren't going to school.

The impact of that is they're not getting an education.

If they are able to go to school as well as work, then it means that they're gonna be very, very exhausted and tired.

And you will understand that you can't learn very well when you are exhausted and when you are tired.

What's even more difficult, however, in countries like the DRC, is that some jobs are dangerous because of the nature of them, like mining.

Children can be very easily injured carrying out jobs like this.

And it's not just about getting an education why children should be going to school.

Not only are they missing out on an education by working instead, they're missing out on chances to develop their friendships, to find interests, to develop hobbies as well.

This child in the photograph is possibly no more than seven years old and they are working in the agriculture industry in the DRC.

It's very hard to imagine, isn't it, how different your life could be.

Let's do some activities together now and think some more about the social impact of resource exploitation.

First of all, I would like you to complete the blanks in this sentence.

Now, to make this a real challenge, I haven't given you the options, but what I have done is provide the first letter of each word.

Pause the video, talk to a partner if you are having trouble finding any of the words.

And then when you unpause the video, I'll share the answers.

Ready? Okay, let's have a look.

Child labour is a type of exploitation.

Did you get that one? Children can be made to go to work instead of going to school, well done.

Children often do hard and dangerous work in the mining industry, well done.

Oh okay.

Here we have the photograph that you saw earlier of two cobalt miners in the DRC.

For this task, I would like you first of all to write a description of what is happening in the photograph.

What are the people doing in the photograph? Then I would like you to identify any risks that you can interpret from the photograph.

You can do that as a list of bullet points if you like.

Don't worry about writing complete sentences.

Finally heres a chance for you to express your own opinion.

Do you think that this photograph shows exploitation? Explain why or why not.

Now remember, it's okay for us to have different opinions.

What we need to be able to do is explain why we think the things we think.

Pause the video to complete the tasks, and then when you are ready, unpause the video and I will go through some examples with you.

Ready? Okay.

So task one, what's happening in the photo? You may have had ideas like these.

In the photograph there are two men working outdoors in a cobalt mine.

They are digging for cobalt by hand, and they are carrying bags that look heavy.

The land is steep and very rocky all around.

Number two, identifying risks.

The men do not have safety equipment.

There could be a landslide or a rock slide.

The men could easily fall or slip and injure themselves.

They are exposed to the sun and the heat, so they might get heat stroke.

And then my opinion for question three, I think there is evidence of exploitation.

The men should have safety equipment like helmets, but they don't.

They are digging by hand and carrying a heavy load.

There is no machinery to help them.

Did you have similar ideas? Well done.

Let's move on to the third part of today's lesson and think about the economic impacts.

These are impacts relating to money.

Having so many natural resources presents a clear opportunity for the DRC to boost their economy by generating employment and wealth.

But not all of the people living in the DRC actually benefit from those natural resources.

In fact, many of the natural resources, in particular, the valuable resources like the precious metals and minerals, they're not owned any longer by the DRC.

They are owned by other countries that have invested into the DRC or made deals with the government for those minerals.

This copper mine that you can see in the photograph here is an example in the DRC of a mine that is not owned by the DRC.

China is an example of one country that has such mining rights in the DRC.

The DRC government gave China the rights to mine for its precious minerals in return for China coming into the country and building infrastructure like roads and hospitals and schools that the DRC wouldn't have been able to build for itself.

As a result of this, wealth is lost from the economy of the DRC, whilst China benefits economically from the minerals that it takes from the DRC.

China can then use those minerals, for example cobalt, in production to make new technology like mobile phones.

They can then export and sell those products all around the world and that in turn generates more wealth for China.

So as you can see, the DRC provides the essential natural resources, but they ultimately are not the ones that benefit from it.

True or false? The people of the DRC benefit most from the wealth generated by natural resources.

I think this is false.

Can you say why? Wealth is lost because other countries, such as China, make deals for access to them.

So it's the other country, in this case China, that profits from the resources not the DRC itself.

To understand more about the economic impact of resource exploitation, we need to look back, we need to look into the history of the DRC.

Because throughout history, natural resources have been a source of conflict and corruption.

The DRC has not always been an African ruled nation.

In fact, in the past it was ruled by a European country called Belgium.

In the past, European countries were interested in creating what were called colonies in Africa, and that's because of the abundance of natural resources that were found there that weren't found in Europe.

So by going and taking over those countries and ruling them, European countries would have access to those natural resources, extracting them and then selling them then generated a lot of wealth for the European nations and not for the African countries where the resources were found, like the DRC.

The map that you can see here is from the year 1892, and that's when the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a different place.

It was called the Congo Free State, and it was ruled by the king of Belgium.

Now, in modern times, things started to change a little and the DRC gained its own independence in 1960 that didn't stop the unrest and the conflict and the corruption.

Though there has been frequent civil unrest and conflict in the DRC and most of the time it's caused because of the natural resources, because of the potential wealth that can be generated from those natural resources.

The wealth of the natural resources leads to corruption within the government.

Politicians begin to make decisions for their own reasons, for their own benefit and personal gain rather than based on what is good for the country.

The man in this photograph is called Colonel Mabutu, and he was a ruler from 1965 to 1997.

He was a military ruler and he is famously known because of how corrupt he was, and he used corruption to stay in power for so long.

So little detail, quick stop to check in on our learning.

Which European country colonised the DRC in the past? Was it Germany, Great Britain, France, or Belgium? It was Belgium, well done.

Final task for this lesson.

This is gonna bring everything we've looked at today.

You've done really well and listened to an awful lot of information.

So let's put it to use.

The DRC is rich in natural resources from its rainforests to its mineral rich volcanic regions and all that mining, and that can make a lot of money, but it leads to very serious environmental, social, and economic impacts.

I want you now to write a report about those impacts of resource exploitation in the DRC.

I would like you to use some named examples and details that are specific to the DRC in your report.

I've provided a bank of useful vocabulary there that you can use to help you.

You can look back through all the resources from this lesson.

You can do a bit of extra research online if you wish.

Make sure you use trustworthy sources if you do.

Pause the video now and when you return, I will share an example with you.

Okay, let's take a look then at an example report.

Exploitation of natural resources in the DRC.

The DRC is rich in natural resources, including rainforest products as well as minerals, metals, and gems that need to be mined.

Extracting these resources has environmental, social, and economic impacts.

The Congo rainforest is shrinking because of deforestation.

This can be for logging, hardwood trees for timber, which causes habitat loss and reduced biodiversity.

Children work in mines and are losing their education as a result.

Corruption in the government over natural resources causes conflict on unrest and even civil war.

Perhaps you had similar ideas in your report.

Why not work in a group with some other learners and share your reports with each other? You have done exceptionally well to take on board a lot of information today.

Let's look back at everything we now know.

We know that there are significant environmental, social, and economic impacts of resource exploitation in the DRC.

Environmental impacts include deforestation as a result of mining and logging in the DRC, and this is a threat to the biodiversity of the beautiful Congo Rainforest.

Social impacts include the exploitation of workers, including children, and they often face very unsafe conditions in mines.

Economic impacts.

Economic impacts are all to do with wealth.

So the wealth from the natural resources in the DRC has very limited benefits for the people of the DRC.

Resource exploitation is actually the cause of a lot of conflict and corruption as we've seen throughout history.

I hope you found this an engaging lesson today and that you will join me again next time for another lesson to find out more about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Bye for now.