Lesson video

Hi there.

I'm Ms. Roberts, and welcome to today's geography lesson.

This lesson is part of our unit of work where we are exploring a country called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is found in Africa.

Today's lesson is all about a very specific biome within the DRC, and that's the tropical rainforest.

By the end of the lesson today, you'll be able to talk about the importance of the Congo Rainforest, and you'll be able to discuss the threats that it faces in today's world.

Let's start by looking at some key words.

This is geographical terminology that you will hear a lot today and that you should be able to use yourself as well when you are discussing the issues that we explore in today's lesson.

So we're talking today about an area of tropical rainforest.

A tropical rainforest is an area of very dense forest that's found close to the Equator, and in those areas it is very warm and there are high levels of rainfall.

We will look at that some more in a moment.

The next key word is deforestation.

Deforestation, as an act, is the complete removal of trees from a forest.

So when you get an area of forest, whether it's a complete forest or part of a forest, and the trees within that region are completely removed, that is deforestation.

There are many different reasons why deforestation happens, and we'll be looking at some of those in this lesson.

Next we have a phrase, carbon sink.

Now, a carbon sink is anything that absorbs and stores carbon dioxide.

We are talking about rainforests, so a rainforest is something that absorbs and stores more carbon dioxide than it releases.

We will look in some more detail at that later in the lesson.

Finally, is this word biodiversity.

You may have heard of this before.

The biodiversity of any area, from the tiniest little pond to the great big rainforest, biodiversity is all of the living things that thrive within that given ecosystem or area.

Okay.

So today we are going to begin by exploring the Congo Rainforest.

We're gonna look some more about where it is, what it is, and what happens there.

Later in the lesson, we'll move on to thinking about why the rainforest is important in the DRC.

So let's begin.

Tropical rainforests are a special type of forest.

They're not found in any old location.

They're only found in specific places on earth.

This map shows you where those specific locations on earth are.

So if you take a look at the line that runs right across the exact centre of earth, the Equator, you will see that tropical rainforests lie in that area around the Equator and in between the two lines of latitude that we call the tropics.

The tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn.

Tropical rainforests, as you can see, are found in North America and South America.

They're found in Africa, they're found in Asia, and they are found in Oceania as well.

There are no tropical rainforests in the continent of Europe, because Europe is too far north of the tropics.

The Congo rainforest is the area that we are focusing on specifically today.

The Congo Rainforest is a large area of tropical rainforest that's found within an area of Africa called the Congo Basin.

The Congo Basin is a region that is drained by Africa's second longest river, the Congo.

It spans six countries in Africa.

It goes through Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the DRC, which is where we're investigating today, the neighbour of the DRC, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

Those six countries are all drained by the mighty Congo River.

So, before we move on to find out more about the tropical rainforest, let's have a quick multiple choice question.

I'd like to know if you were paying attention by telling me which continent doesn't have areas of tropical rainforest.

I'd like you also to give me a quick reason why.

Ready? Well, Africa certainly has tropical rainforests.

We're exploring part of Africa today, aren't we? Asia has tropical rainforests, as does Oceania.

The continent that doesn't is Europe, and the reason is because Europe is too far north of the tropics.

So a tropical rainforest cannot possibly occur in Europe.

The Congo Rainforest in the DRC is the second largest tropical rainforest on earth.

The largest tropical rainforest is found in South America around the Amazon River.

The tropical rainforest in the DRC is the size of about 310 million hectares, and that stretches throughout the DRC and other countries to the west as well.

If you look at the map here, the area circled is the small area of tropical rainforest that we are looking at today in the DRC.

So let's zoom in now into this area in the ring.

Let's look into the DRC.

I have labelled the rainforest here on this map for you.

The DRC has about 107 million hectares of tropical rainforest.

That's a lot, isn't it? This is about 60% of the total area of the Congo rainforest, and it's about 65% of the total area, the land area of the country of the DRC.

So that's a very vast amount of the country that is covered in these tropical rainforests.

So throughout history, the people of the DRC have had to adapt to living here, and they have been able to find ways of using the tropical rainforest as a natural resource to meet their needs.

It has provided people with food and shelter for thousands of years.

So, before we move on, can you tell me if you think this statement is true or false? "The DRC is covered entirely by the Congo rainforest." Hmm.

This statement is false.

The tropical rainforest is massive, at about 107 million hectares, but it doesn't cover the entire country.

It covers about 65% of the country.

The other 35% is covered in different physical landscapes.

This picture here is an aerial view of part of the tropical rainforest in the DRC.

You can see how dense the trees are there.

We can't see through them.

It's just trees, a vast array of trees as far as the eye can see.

Within the tropical rainforest, there is great biodiversity.

These tall trees and the rainforests provide habitats for millions of species of animals and birds, from the teeniest tiniest insects and tree frogs to huge great gorillas, African elephants, all kinds of wildlife, large and small, can be found here in the Congo rainforest.

This includes an amazing 400 different species of mammals.

Let's find out some more about them.

Some animal species are only found in the Congo rainforest, in the wild.

There may be some examples of these species in zoos or wildlife parks around the world, but in the natural world, these species are what we call endemic to the DRC.

This is their only natural habitat on earth.

The okapi, which is shown to you in this photo, is one of those species.

Look at this okapi.

You can see the elegant stripes, like a zebra, and the long, slender neck, like a giraffe.

These specific animals are naturally found breeding in the northeast part of the DRC in the tropical rainforest.

Isn't that beautiful? So let's have a look now.

Let's have a quick multiple choice question about animals found in the DRC in the rainforest.

Which of these animals has a habitat there? Be careful.

There could be more than one correct answer.

Pause the video, have a think, and when you're ready, I'll share the answers with you.

Okay.

Well, this particular picture, C, a highland cow, they're not found in the tropical rainforests, are they? But we do have great gorillas, and we do have beautiful okapis.

Well done.

So, let's put everything we know so far about the tropical rainforest, and specifically about tropical rainforests within the DRC, and use it to complete this mapping activity.

I would like you to complete your own map of the DRC now, with some physical features on it.

I would like you to add the Congo River, which flows through the DRC, and out into the Atlantic Ocean.

I would like you to shade roughly the area that is covered by the tropical rainforest in the DRC.

And I would like you to add the Equator to your map.

Now those three things are the minimum things that I would like you to do in this task.

After you pause the video, I will share an example of a map with these things on it.

Now, you can use any of the resources from this lesson to help you.

You can also use the internet or atlases or other books for research.

When you are researching, you may find other features of the DRC that you would like to include on your map, and that's fine too.

But remember, all maps have a key, so you should include a key, for these three features as well as any others that you add.

Pause the video, and when you return, I'll share an example map with you.

Okay, let's have a look at a map together.

Your map might look like this one.

I have shaded green the area of the tropical rainforest.

The Equator is the dash line that I have added to the map.

And the Congo River is labelled on the map in that arch shape running through the country.

I've also added the Kasai River, and I have added the city of Kinshasa to this map as well.

Moving on now to the second part of today's lesson, and we're going to think about the reasons why the tropical rainforest is important in the DRC, and some of the threats that it faces.

From your science lessons, you may have heard of a process called photosynthesis.

All plants, from tiny blades of grass, to the great tall trees of the rainforest, undergo this process of photosynthesis.

Plants and trees take in or absorb carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.

They use that carbon dioxide in this process of photosynthesis, and then they release oxygen into the atmosphere.

So carbon dioxide goes in, and oxygen comes out.

This natural process is a critical part of what we call the carbon cycle.

That's how carbon dioxide moves around our planet.

This diagram shows you, in a very basic situation, what happens during photosynthesis.

If this is happening for even the tiniest flowers, can you imagine how much carbon dioxide is going to be absorbed by those massive tropical rainforests? It's a lot, isn't it? Large vegetation belts, like the tropical rainforest, not just the tropical rainforest in the DRC, all of those tropical rainforests on earth, the Amazon and the DRC, areas of Asia and Oceania as well.

We call those large areas carbon sinks, and that's because they absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.

All of those trees there that you can see, those trees that we can see as far into the horizon there, they're all absorbing carbon dioxide.

But why is that important? The Congo Rainforest in the DRC stores approximately 30 million tonnes of carbon.

30 million tonnes.

Where's this carbon stored? It's stored in those trees, in the plants, and deep within the rich, peaty soils of the rainforest.

Every year, this tropical rainforest absorbs around 1.

5 million more tonnes of carbon from our atmosphere.

That means that this rainforest is one of the world's most important carbon sinks.

Carbon sinks are critical for planet earth, and that's because they help us to reduce something called the Greenhouse Effect.

You may have heard of this before.

The greenhouse effect occurs naturally, but the problem is that us humans have been making it happen more and more, and that's been happening ever since something that we call the Industrial Revolution.

That's when great factories were built, machines were invented, and we started polluting our atmosphere through the growth of industry.

Global warming is mainly happening as a result of the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Let's briefly pause here for a quick check.

I'd like you to complete this sentence, please, using one of the four options.

"Large vegetation belts that absorb carbon dioxide are known as carbon what?" Containers, sinks, basins, or cupboards? They're carbon sinks.

Well done.

Now, despite the critical role that rainforests play in our carbon cycle, there are many threats that they face in today's world.

The biggest threat is because the trees themselves are a natural resource.

The trees are cut down, because they produce hardwoods, like mahogany, for example, which is a common wood used for furniture making.

Trees that are cut down extensively just for their wood is known as logging.

Logging is just one reason why deforestation is happening in the DRC.

It's a major threat to the Congo rainforest.

The chart in this picture shows you the countries in the world that are experiencing the greatest rates of deforestation.

The biggest one there is Brazil, where the largest rainforest in the world is located.

And then we have the DRC here.

So logging is one reason why rainforests are being deforested in the DRC.

What else is happening there? Agriculture happens widely across the DRC.

It's one of the largest industries there.

Some areas of the tropical rainforests are cut down for farming reasons to use the land on which the trees stand.

The main technique that is used to clear rainforests in that way is called slash and burn.

The trees are chopped down, and then the area is burned and the area that remains underneath becomes very fertile and is used for farming.

The tropical rainforest is also rich in other natural resources beside the trees themselves.

Mining can take place in order to reach very expensive and valuable resources found deep within the earth.

This picture shows you a gold mine, which is found in the tropical rainforest in the DRC.

To get to those natural resources like gold, large mines have to be constructed.

You can see how huge and ugly this mine is in the picture.

That destroys large areas of the forest, and when that area has been mined, and all those resources are extracted and there's nothing more to gain from that area, those mines are left and the landscape is scarred and ugly.

The land can't recover.

So agriculture and mining, as well as logging, are three major causes of deforestation in the DRC.

Can you remember what each of those three things are? I would like you to match those causes to the correct description.

Pause the video so you can read them through and then match them up.

Ready? Okay.

So, logging is cutting down trees for timber, for industries such as furniture-making.

Then we have mining, is when trees are cut down to create mines to extract natural minerals.

And lastly, we have farming or agriculture.

This is where trees are cut down to make space to grow crops or keep animals such as cattle.

Deforestation has huge knock-on effects.

The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest is at massive risk because deforestation threatens their habitat.

Remember, at the start of this lesson, we talked about the millions of animals and birds and plants that live in the rainforest.

We talked about the beautiful okapi and those great African gorillas.

Deforestation of the tropical rainforest has an impact on that entire biome, including the animals, including the trees, including all the other tropical plants and the vines that grow there.

The biodiversity as a whole is impacted severely by deforestation.

In the DRC, there are also people that live within these tropical rainforests.

Many small local communities.

They depend on the forest as their source of shelter.

It provides shade from the sun.

They use it as their source of food, and in many cases, they grow their food there and make money from farming.

So, deforestation is threatening these communities which depend on it for their survival.

So thinking about what you've just heard, would you say that this statement is true or false? "Deforestation of the Congo rainforest only threatens animals." Is that true or false? This is false.

Can you give me any reasons why this is false? It's false because deforestation threatens everything, not just animals.

It threatens the animals and the plants.

The entire biodiversity of the area is at risk.

It also threatens human communities, all those small local settlements, and the people that make their money from farming, for example, and use the rainforest as shelter.

Everybody in the biome is at risk from deforestation.

So now let's try an activity together.

I would like you to complete this table by making some notes about the causes and consequences of deforestation in the Congo rainforest.

You can use all of the information from this lesson, or you can do some research on the internet or from other books, and you may wish to work with a partner.

Perhaps one of you could investigate causes, and the other consequences.

When you return, I'll then share some ideas with you.

Pause the video while you complete this task.

Okay, let's have a look together.

You might have had some ideas like these.

Let's start with the causes of deforestation.

Deforestation is when trees are cut down for specific purposes.

In the DRC, trees in the Congo rainforest are cut down through logging to make timber, and also to clear areas to build mines to dig for natural resources, like gold, for example.

Now, the consequences.

Thousands of species of animals and birds will lose their habitats when the trees are not there.

This puts the entire biodiversity of the tropical rainforest at risk.

Some local communities in the DRC depend on the tropical rainforest.

They could lose their food supply, or their income.

Did you have similar ideas? Well done.

So that brings us to the end of this lesson, and we have found out a lot about this amazing biome that takes up such a large area within the DRC.

The Congo Rainforest is the second largest area of tropical rainforest on earth, and it sits within the Congo Basin.

There are over 400 species of mammal that live there.

That includes gorillas and okapi.

32 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in the trees and the plants of the Congo rainforest.

That means it's a critically important carbon sink.

Unfortunately, we have also discovered that deforestation is a huge threat to the biodiversity and to the local communities that exist in the DRC in the areas of tropical rainforest.

I hope you have enjoyed finding out all about the DRC's tropical rainforest in this lesson, and I look forward to seeing you again for another lesson to find out more about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Bye for now!.