Silent Forests
Enter the Silent Forest to explore the people, wildlife and the impacts of the bushmeat trade in Africa. Find out what people in Cameroon are doing to stop illegal hunting and support alternative livelihoods for hunters, and learn what you can do to help people and wildlife.
The Silent Forests website for secondary schools was developed with a DFID Development Awareness mini-grant. The project involved four Thames Valley schools in learning, action and advocacy about this thorny topic. Students met conservation and wildlife experts from Cameroon and took part in roleplay activities and debates. Action groups at each school took steps to research and raise awareness, giving assemblies and creating poster campaigns, and discussing the issues by video conference with students from Yaounde. Cherwell School’s Chicken Project team raised funds to help families living near Takamanda National Park in Cameroon start small-scale poultry breeding, offering a potential alternative to bushmeat as a source of protein and income.
Teachers can see how each lesson links to Geography KS3 and KS4, Citizenship KS3 and KS4 and A-level Biology national curriculum and exam specifications here.
Visit http://www.silentforests.net to find out more.
Students from Yaoundé, Cameroon meet students from Cherwell and Lord Williams Schools in Oxfordshire to talk about Congo Basin conservation issues
Feedback from Students at Lord Williams School
“I liked the role play and how they linked in to each other’s lives”
“The activities were fun and eye opening and I would have liked to do the debate for a longer time”
Feedback
From teachers on the TES site:
“Thought provoking and a bit different. Thanks.”
“An excellent lesson plan and set of resources. The videos are all very good and will provide pupils with lots of things to discuss. The take-action handout is also very good and will focus pupils’ group work. This topic would cover a whole range of areas in Citizenship, Geography, etc but will also hopefully touch on the human-side of the issues involved and that they can campaign too.”
“These activities could easily be used in citizenship lessons or as part of a theme day on global citizenship, people and sustainability”
Download the Silent Forests Bushmeat Factsheet (pdf, opens in new window).
Silent Forests workshop in Cameroon