Sustainable Development of Tropical Rainforests

By the end of this lesson you will know you have succeeded if

you are able to…

• Define sustainable development

• Recall some ways of trying to achieve sustainable development in TRFs

• Evaluate some of the different methods

So… what is sustainable development?

“Sustainable development is development which meets the needs* of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs*. Sustainable development attempts to minimise the negative impacts of development by considering the needs of both the environment and future generations”

(* - social, economic and environmental)

Homework

1. Complete a past GCSE question on this topic: “Evaluate different methods of achieving sustainable development in a named tropical rainforest location in terms of their social, economic and environmental outcomes” [9 marks]

2. Play an online ‘game’ – seewww.eduweb.com/ecotourism/eco1.htmlAND EVALUATE IT – i.e. suggest pros and cons of the game as a way of learning about rainforest ecotourism

In the lesson today…1. Get into 5 teams

2. Location of Maués, Brazil

3. Assign roles (native family, settlers from city, government, Greenpeace, research student)

4. Decide in your groups (in role) which option you would choose for developing the rainforest sustainably AND WHY [write it down]

5. Choose a spokesperson to explain to the class which option you chose AND WHY (and why not the others)

Feel free to scribble ideas on the options sheets

Evaluation (cont.)

• NB there are lots of other possible methods, e.g. what do you think these are?

- selective logging- small scale slash & burn- leasing to pharmaceutical companies for medicinal research

Which trees are selected? Why?

Pros and cons?

Environmental? Social? Economic?

Click here for video clip

But before you get sucked in, here’s another of the adverts:

By the end of this lesson you will know you have succeeded if

you are able to…

• Define sustainable development

• Recall some ways of trying to achieve sustainable development in TRFs

• Evaluate some of the different methods

“Evaluate different methods of achieving sustainable development in a named tropical rainforest location in terms of their social, economic and environmental outcomes” [9 marks] What’s needed for 9/9?

• “Evaluate”?

• “different methods”

• “social, economic, environmental”

• Geographical terms

• Specifics

• SPaG

Evaluation• What were the advantages of looking at

this issue through group work (as opposed to e.g. internet research)?

• What about drawbacks?

• Can you comment with authority about sustainable development of the rainforest in e.g. Brazil or Congo or Madagascar?

What do these statements mean? Do you agree with them?

• “Sustainability is a spectrum, not a ‘black & white’ issue”

• “Environmental and economic sustainability are often in conflict – it is hard to achieve both”

• “It is hard to find unbiased, authoritative information on sustainable development of tropical rainforests”

Could you apply the ideas and thinking skills from

today to other parts of the course / other subjects?

Copyright etc.

• All pictures are my own, or from ‘creative commons’ search on Flickr

• Many thanks to the SLN community for ideas and support in making this lesson