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Did you know there are many different communities of
indigenous rainforest people, who each speak their own
language and have their own ancient traditions? Two
examples are the the Ashaninka from Peru and the Baka
Pygmies from Cameroon.

Most rainforest people HUNT and FISH in the forest to feed

their families. They use blowpipes, fishing spears or bows and
arrows to hunt birds, monkeys, rodents and fish.

Rainforest people are HUNTER-GATHERERS, which mean they

move from place to place to find food.
Many forest people believe that animals have a SPIRIT, which
will be angered if the animal is killed cruelly or for the wrong
purposes. Killing animals is therefore done with respect,
following the customs of the tribe.

They grow crops of maize, manioc, bananas, plantains,

beans, yams and sweet potatoes in gardens close to the
villages.

Growing crops like this is called SHIFTING FARMING.

Communities will burn small patches of land to grow crops,

and then leave the soil to recover for 10 to 15 years. This way
the soil and the rainforest plants are not permanently
damaged.

This type of farming is SUSTAINABLE, which means they use

the rainforest without destroying it, so future generations of
rainforest people can use and live in the forest too.

They also collect

avocados, mangoes,
pineapples, nuts and
honey from the forest.
Sometimes they even
collect insects such as
caterpillars, grubs and
tarantulas.

YUMMY!

Rainforest people also know how to fish, using SPEARS or

NETS.
The community knows a lot about the plants that grow and
which can be used to cure illness. They also take sick
people to a SHAMAN, which means ‘one who sees’. They
believe that a Shaman can speak to the spirit world to find
out what is causing the illness. In South Africa we call that
person a “sangoma” or a witchdoctor.

Here is a STAFF that is used in a

healing ritual.

Did you know that in the Western World, we also use

hundreds of medicines that come from rainforest plants?

Because there are so many plants in the rainforest that have

never been identified, it is possible that some could be used
to cure serious diseases. One of the problems about
destroying the forest is that these plants can become extinct
before we ever know of their healing properties.

Rainforest people have a vast knowledge of how to use

rainforest plants - almost everything that they use in everyday
life comes from the rainforest, including dyes, hammocks,
clothes, jewellery, poisons for hunting, face paints, spears,
blowpipes, nets, drinks and rope.

Can you think of the type of clothes that might be worn by

rainforest people?
Because of the hot, humid climate, most tropical rainforest
people wear very little! Often they wear strips of cloth or
string tied around their waists.

Many rainforest people also wear BODY PAINT. They use

special colours and patterns to show important stages in their
lives. They believe that it helps them to get in touch with the
spirits.

For ceremonial occasions, body paint is accompanied by

body ornaments, feathers and headdresses to make
elaborate costumes.

Rainforest People sometimes live with all their family

members under one roof called a communal house. This can
sometimes house hundreds of people!

How many people would you live with if your parents, sisters,
brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousins all lived
together under one roof?

Houses are made out of forest materials, such as palm

leaves, trees and clay. They are often built on stilts for
protection from mud, rain and animals.

HAMMOCKS or sleeping mats are used for beds. There are

usually separate huts at the edge of the village for cooking
and community meetings.
Rainforest people hold traditional ceremonies, dance, sing,
play musical instruments such as flutes or drums, bathe, and
have wrestling matches to enjoy themselves.

Children spend their time helping out in the garden, weaving

or hunting.

Most children are taught how

to cook, hunt and to make
crafts at home.

Some go to government
schools to learn maths,
history, or languages. If they
are lucky, the school classes
will be taught in their own
language. In Cameroon
most children do not go to
government schools
because it is expensive.

The rainforests of the world are under threat. Their trees are
valuable as wood and the land where the forests stand can be
used for other things such as farms.

Because most of the rainforests exist in poor countries, the

governments are often forced to exploit them to make money.
Once rainforests are gone, the land becomes less fertile, and
the soil washes away. The trees can no longer provide their
valuable services, such as absorbing CARBON DIOXIDE, which is
a gas that contributes to CLIMATE CHANGE. Often the long
term value of the rainforests is ignored in favour of short-term
profits.

When the forest is cut down in a process called LOGGING, the

wood can be used to make houses, or to burn for heat. Very
often it is EXPORTED to other countries. Because many countries
are poor, they are forced to cut down large areas of the forest
to make money quickly.

Cutting down the forest in an UNSUSTAINABLE way, so that it

cannot recover, means that future generations of the country
will be even poorer as they will have less NATURAL RESOURCES
to use. Logging can also cause flooding, which can make
many people and animals homeless.

Can you think of some things in your home or school that are
made of wood? It is important that when we buy wood we
make sure it has not come from a rainforest that has been
destroyed.
Farmers can make money from growing crops on former
rainforest lands. Once the crops use up the nutrients in the soil,
it quickly become thin and poor, and before long nothing can
grow.

After a few years, the land is abandoned and more trees are
burnt to make way for the farms.

One of the biggest crops that is grown in the Amazon is SOYA

BEAN. The beans are then used to feed cows, or to make oil or
to be used in food products. In Cameroon MAIZE is grown and
is used as the staple diet.

Rainforest land is often cleared to provide grazing lands for

cows. The meat from the cows is exported to make things like
hamburgers.

After some time, the grazing lands become barren and

ranchers move their cows onto new lands which causes
further rainforest deforestation. This cycle is very destructive
as the ranches move further and further into the rainforests,
often disturbing rainforest communities.

HYDROELECTRIC DAMS are built on rivers in rainforests to

provide ELECTRICITY. Once the dam is built, a large area of
rainforest has to be flooded by the reservoir of water behind
the dam. The people who live there have to be moved.
The ground that the forests stand on often contains valuable
NATURAL RESOURCES such as metals, minerals, rocks and oil,
leaving it vulnerable to EXPLOITATION.

Can you think which materials in the pictures below might

have come from the rainforest?

GOLD and DIAMONDS are often mined in forest areas.

ALUMINIUM, which is used to make drink and food cans,

comes from rock called bauxite, which is also extracted from
the ground in large amounts. OIL is drilled in the forest too.

Communities can be thrown off their land to make way for

mining and drilling. Sometimes the water from the rivers they
use for cooking and washing becomes polluted and they
become sick. Fish in the rivers also die, so the communities
have less to eat.

Governments, and mining and logging companies build

roads into the rainforest. You may think that a road does not
take up much space, but when people move into the area,
they build new towns, villages and more roads. Often they
set up their farms in the rainforest.

These activities DO take up a lot of space, and a lot of

rainforest can be lost.
Once a road has been built,
it makes it a lot easier for the
loggers, miners and ranchers
to take their wood and farm
produce to places where it
can be exported, speeding
up the rate of deforestation .

When governments declare rainforest areas as national parks

or reserves, they often force people living in them to leave. This
makes the forest people homeless. They have no access to
their forests for food, shelter and medicines.

National parks and reserves

can be designed to protect
the rainforests from
destruction. As traditional
rainforest communities are
experts at looking after the
rainforest, they are the best
guardians of the forests.

IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE WORLD'S RAINFORESTS ARE

PROTECTED AND USED RESPONSIBLY!

The rainforest is home to millions of people who live in or

depend on the rainforest for their livelihoods. If the rainforests
are destroyed, they are left homeless, and without a way to
work and support their families.
So what can you do to help the rainforest?

1) Choose wood carefully

Make sure that your home and school do not buy wood that
comes from rainforests, such as mahogany, ivoko, sapele,
vamin and rosewood. Ask the salesperson where the wood
came from. You can check in the 'Good Wood Guide'
published by Friends of the Earth.

2) Spread the word!

You can show the rest of your school, friends and family what
you have learned about the rainforests by making a display!

You can draw pictures and write your own stories about the
people and animals who live in the rainforest.

Here are some activities that other school children have

done to raise money. Ask your teacher to help you organise
an event, and send the money you raise to the Rainforest
Foundation.

* Hold a Sponsored event *

You can do a sponsored run, walk, swim, bike ride, jog, hop,
three-legged race, book read, skip, ramble, football match,
dance, silence - in fact, you can do a sponsored anything as
long as it is safe and you have permission! It can be more fun
and easier if you do your event in a group. Once you have
thought of a good idea, the next thing to do is to ask your
teacher to help you organise it.

• Hold an Own Clothes Day *

Ask your teachers to help you organise a day when

everyone is allowed to wear their own clothes to school and
to bring a donation. Why not have a rainforest theme where
everyone wears something green?
Ask your family and friends to sponsor you, but remember,
never ask for money from strangers.

* Hold a Rainforest Event *

Organise a play, dance routine, talent or fashion show or an
art exhibition of your class paintings and ask people to make
a donation to come and see your art and performances!

* Do an odd job for the Rainforest Foundation *

Ask your parents if you can do a chore such as a carwash,
litter collection, or odd jobs in the garden. The money that
you earn will help other people to protect their homes in the
rainforest.

Although rainforests like this one only cover about one

twentieth of the earth's surface, they contain more than half
of all the animals and plants in the whole world.

Did you know there are over 30 million different SPECIES of

plant and animals in the rainforest? You do now!

Like most big cats, jaguars enjoy water. Jaguars are strong
swimmers, and will follow their prey into the water during the
chase!

Despite being feared in the jungle for his amazing hunting

skills, all jaguars are ENDANGERED. This means that the
survival of the species is threatened, and that their numbers
are less than they used to be.

Many species are endangered because when the rainforest

is cut down, they have nowhere to live and their food
becomes scarce.

Other animals such as hairy gorillas, giant long-nosed

anteaters, the strange sounding Amazon umbrella bird, and
the Queen Alexandra's bird-wing butterfly (who, as their
name suggests have butterfly wings as big as birds wings),
are endangered, among many others.

In the rainforest, plants grow in

LAYERS.

The BOTTOM LAYER, or forest

floor, is made up of plants and
ferns. The lower layer of trees is
called the UNDERSTORY. The
next layer up is the CANOPY
LAYER where most of the
animals and insects live.

The TOP LAYER consists of giant

trees up to 75 metres tall that
tower over the rest of the forest!

Many rainforest plants are very useful.

Food such as pineapple, banana, grapefruit, avocado and

coconut originated there, as did many spices like chocolate,
vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper, ginger and
paprika.

The Sloth lives high up in the trees, and spends a lot of her
day hanging upside down.

You may think that a sloth can enjoy the peace and quiet
up in the roof of the forest, but she has a lot of company up
there!
Animals such as orangutans, tree porcupines, and tree frogs
go up to the branches of the trees where there are always
flowers, leaves, fruits and nuts to eat.

The Sloth is a MAMMAL. Do you know what this is?

A mammal is a WARM-BLOODED animal with a back bone.

Mammals give birth to living young which are nourished with
their mother's milk.

The Tamarin monkey is a

PRIMATE.

Primates are mammals

that are biologically very
closely related to humans,
with over 98% of the same
genes!

Part of the tamarin family is ENDANGERED as a great deal of

their home in the rainforest in South America is being cut
down.

Two types of species in this family, the Golden Lion Tamarins

in Brazil and the Cotton-Top tamarins in Colombia, face
EXTINCTION.

Extinction is very serious. It means that if the last animal of

that species dies, the species will never exist again on earth."
Gorillas

Gorillas live in the rainforests in Africa. They are found mainly

in coastal West Africa, Congo and Cameroon but also in
Zaire, Rwanda and Uganda.

Gorillas mainly eat fruit, leaves, stems and other plant matter.
They sometimes eat meat, insects and eggs.
They live in social groups, which are led by a dominant male.
The male in charge is called the silverback due to the grey
fur on his back. The group includes several females and
young.

There are three sub-species of gorilla:

The mountain gorilla

The western lowland gorilla

The eastern lowland gorilla

Unfortunately many animals and plants have already been
made extinct by the loss of their homes in the rainforests.

Because scientists have not identified most of the

world's animal and plant species, many may be lost
before we even have a chance to find them.
The Bat is a mammal. He likes to
go out at night and fly through
the forest, collecting insects in his
mouth mid-flight.

How do you think a bat stops

himself from flying into trees?

He has special skills that allow

him to produce sounds that
bounce of the things around
him, like an ECHO. The sounds
are too high pitched for us to
hear though!

Can you tell us about other members of the bat family?

The largest type of bat in the world is the Malay fruit bat. They
live in the forests of Southeast Asia. They have such huge wings
that they also have the name of Flying Fox.

Their wing span is 1.7 meters - much bigger than the distance
between your hands if you spread your arms as wide as you
can!"

Not all bats are big though. The smallest bat in the rainforest is
the Kitti's hog-nosed bat. Their wings are a only 15 centimeters
wide with their wings open - measure it and see how small they
are!
There are thousands of types of birds in the rainforest. Many of
them have very brightly coloured feathers, which act as
CAMOUFLAGE to disguise them as flowers or fruit.

Eagles, toucans, birds of paradise, macaws, parrots and

parakeets are some of the birds that I see flying around my
home in the rainforest.

Look at this Toucan’s beautiful

yellow beak.
Toucans are one of the noisiest
jungle birds, with a croak like a
frog that can be heard for half
a mile!

The Anaconda is the world's

biggest snake.
He eats other animals which he
catches by squeezing them to
death. Anacondas have been
known to kill humans, so be
careful you don't step on him!
Like all snakes, he is a REPTILE.
Reptiles are COLD-BLOODED
which means that his body
temperature is the same as his
surroundings.

AMPHIBIANS are also cold-blooded.

An amphibian is an animal that can live in water and on the

land. Lizards, snakes, frogs, crocodiles and turtles are some of
the types of amphibians that you can find in rainforests.

The Jesus Christ lizard has a very special talent. He can actually
run on water! Jesus Christ lizards have very long tails which help
them to run very quickly. These lizards perform this impressive
feat when chasing prey or escaping danger.

There are millions of insect species in the rainforest, so I hope

you aren't scared of creepy crawlies!

Insects are fascinating

creatures - some smell
with their antennae, taste
with their feet and have
five eyes - or no eyes at
all!

Insects that live in the

forest include spiders,
butterflies, stick insects,
beetles and mosquitoes.

We better be careful though - there is a type of spider which

can eat frogs and some tarantulas which are big enough to
eat birds!

The animals, birds and insects of the forest

are amazing. That is why it is important that
the forests that we live in are protected, to
make sure we don't disappear from the
earth forever!
Credits & Thanks to

http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/camer.html
www.rainforestfoundationuk.org
www.wikipedia.org