For every fig species, there is a specific wasp that pollinates it, explains 50/50 presenter Bertus Louw.
WESSA is excited to launch a new environmental education programme for schools that is aimed at increasing knowledge about the key role forests play in enabling sustainable life on our planet, including the cultural, ecologic, economic and social functions and benefits.
LEAF (Learning About Forests) is an innovative, international programme that encourages learners and communities to take ownership of creating healthy surroundings by engaging with their local forests and planting indigenous trees. Learners on the programme also plant food and fruit forests (vegetable gardens and fruit trees) as outdoor classrooms, to support existing structures in schools and communities.
The programme was launched earlier this month at the Pretoria National Botanical Gardens with the introduction of the #OurForestsAreOurFuture campaign to a number of teachers, learners, local government representatives, nurseries, other NGOs and the Gauteng Environmental Education Forum.
Learners counted the different kinds of trees identified and learned about biodiversity.
The campaign is a joint initiative of the WESSA LEAF programme and Johannesburg-based NGO School Forest Project, who will supply one hundred trees to the ten schools from Eersterus, Mamelodi and Tshwane East participating in the LEAF programme in 2018. South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) will provide all children from these schools with free access to the garden for the duration of the project.
Speaking at the event, special guest and 50/50 presenter Bertus Louw said that 40% of South Africa’s forests have been destroyed and that a programme like LEAF can make a big difference in rebuilding a biome that is crucial to our survival. The learners were entertained and inspired by Louw’s stories of the different forests he has visited across the globe, where he has seen the important role forests play: from providing us with basic furniture and creating outdoor shaded spaces for enjoyment, to protecting us from natural phenomena such as tsunamis.
Participants at the launch had the opportunity to engage in several different activities in the indigenous forest of the Pretoria National Botanical Garden. These included a demonstration of the process of planting trees endemic to the Pretoria area from seeds; investigating quadrants of the forests to determine their biodiversity using technology, science and maths; and taking a closer look through magnifying glasses at the special adaptations of leaves. At the medicinal plant section of the gardens, the teachers told the learners about the plants their parents used to cure certain ailments, and highlighted the important role plants still play in the medicinal field today.
Learners and teachers explored different arrangements, margins, and adaptations of leaves.
Says WESSA LEAF programme manager Cindy-Lee Cloete: “Any school can register to participate on the LEAF programme and it therefore has the potential to reach 12.5-million learners and 125,000 teachers across South Africa. The strength of the programme is in its project-based learning, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) approach to learning about forests. The programme helps learners, teachers and communities identify practical solutions for local and global issues, enabling them to make decisions and take ownership and responsibility for their future. This is real learning today for the real world tomorrow.”
Schools participating on the LEAF programme can select to explore a variety of LEAF themes and aspects based on the needs of their own school and community. Learners will have the opportunity to reconnect with their natural surroundings through hands-on activities and forest excursions, and will be inspired to use, appreciate and protect our forests as they explore the relationship between our everyday lives and our natural and social environment.
Learners took a closer look at life on leaves, which included insects, the veins on the leaves and special features they have to protect them, like hair.
The programme objectives are to:
- ensure learners learn to enjoy the outdoors, experience and observe nature
- understand the relationship between people and nature
- enable learners to make decisions on local environmental issues
- ensure that learners help take ownership and responsibility for their future
Linked to our South African heritage, LEAF collaborates with schools to reconnect with, learn about, be inspired by and take ownership of our natural, woodlands and man-made forests. LEAF action projects are guided by a 6-step Forest Cycle, making implementation of projects structured and easy, and can be driven the ecological, economic, social or cultural aspects of forests.
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