Lesson video

Hi everyone, I'm Miss Reid and welcome to another geography lesson on biomes.

Let's have a look at our key question for today.

Our key question is how a biome is being protected and preserved? Well in this lesson, we're going to be learning about conservation, both in relation to plants flora, and animals fauna.

We will look specifically at the conservation of forests and conservation of corn bunting a bird that lives in the United Kingdom.

And we'll end the lesson by considering what you can do to support conservation in your local area.

So for today's lesson, all you'll need is an exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil and your brain.

Please take a moment now to clear away any distractions, including turning off the notifications of any apps or conversations that you have running in the background, If you know how to.

Finally, if you can try to find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed during the lesson.

Pause the video now so you can get everything you need and find a quiet place to work.

Great.

Now you have everything you need, let's move on.

So we are of course geographers and geographers are a type of scientists who study the earth and that's includes the land, the physical features and the people who live within it, the human features.

So today we're going to be asking what is conservation? We'll then be looking at habitat conservation in relation to forests and wildlife conservation in relation to corn buntings and something within our own local area.

So what is conservation? Well conservation's goals include protecting species from extinction, which means the loss of the entirety of that species, such as the dodo, maintaining and restoring habitats that have been damaged, enhancing services that help ecosystems such as pollution control and increasing biodiversity, the variety of plant and animal life found within a biome.

Conservation is.

Lets have a look at the four options.

Conservation is restoring plant life within biomes.

B, conservation is protecting species from extinction and maintaining and restoring habitats.

Conservation is c, restoring animal life within biomes.

Or d, conservation is protecting humans from the biomes they live in.

Choose the answer that most correctly links to conservation.

Pause the video now and complete that task.

Great work everyone.

Let's have a look at the answer.

So the answer was b, conservation is protecting species from extinction and maintaining and restoring habitats.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

Great work everyone.

So forests, we're looking at forest in relation to habitat conservation.

And what's being done around the world and why they are in need of conservation.

Well, forests are essential for life on earth.

In fact, 300 million people worldwide live in forests.

And 1.

6 billion depend on them for their livelihoods.

Forests also provide habitats for a vast array of plants and animals, many of which are still undiscovered.

Forests, including rainforests, temperate deciduous forest and coniferous forest are home to 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity.

That means, the plant and animal life that lives on land.

In fact, 50% of all the earth species are found in tropical rainforest.

Forest also play a critical role in slowing down the impact of climate change because they sock up carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that would otherwise be free in the atmosphere and contribute to ongoing changes to global climates.

But forests are being destroyed and degraded at alarming rates.

Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear cutting for farming, unsustainable logging for timber and deterioration due to climate change.

This impacts people's livelihoods and threatens a wide range of plant and animal species.

Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate.

In fact, 18.

7 million acres of forest are lost every year and that's equivalent to 27 football fields every minute.

Did you know that the Amazon, the planet's largest rainforest has lost at least 17% of its forest cover in the last half a century due to human activity? And in Indonesia, the Island of Sumatra has lost 85% of its forests.

Here's a question, how many acres of forest are lost to deforestation annually across the globe? Let's look at the answers or potential answers.

A, is it 8.

7 million acres? B, 17.

8 million acres? C, 1.

87 million acres? Or d, 18.

7 million acres? Pause the video now and choose the answer you think is correct.

Great work everyone.

Let's check the answer.

So the right answer was d, 18.

7 million acres are lost annually and that's the equivalent to 27 football fields every minute.

Let's move on.

Before we do, you can tick off actual answer.

Now we're ready to move on.

So habitat conservation forests.

We're now going to think about ways that countries and governments and individuals are trying to conserve forests.

The first way is carbon offsetting.

Now carbon offsetting is the practise of putting funds towards organisations which help the environment by lowering or reducing carbon emissions.

An example would be reforestation projects.

Now the world wildlife fund also known as WWF is encouraging governments around the world to offset their carbon emissions by protecting the forest they already have or planting new forests to offset the damage previously done by deforestation.

Two, protecting forests.

Well, securing forest ecosystems as parks and other protected areas can help to preserve their valuable plants and animals for the future, and for future generations.

Protected areas have proved key to the preservation of plant and animal species, such as the mountain gorillas that live in the forests of the Virunga Mountains in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Three, raising awareness.

Now you might be able to see that the people in that picture are protesting and one of them is holding a sign with Greta Thunberg on it.

You might know who she is.

If you don't, you can ask a parent or carer at the end of this lesson to help you do some research on her, because she is a very interesting young lady.

Now, many countries such as Iceland, who made an advert about the dangers facing orangutans, companies such as WWF and individual such as Greta Thuberg are raising awareness about deforestation and the subsequent loss of biodiversity within them.

This helps to educate people all over the world like me and like you so that we can be more conscious about the organisations we support and the products that we buy.

For example, palm oil is mainly harvested from the palm trees cut down in the forests of Indonesia.

And many people are now refusing to buy products that contain palm oil, because they know that the orangutans, and many of the other species are losing their habitats as a result of deforestation.

That putting pressure on companies that buy palm oil to stop buying it so that they can put pressure on industries and governments to stop deforestation in that part of the world.

Answer the question, let's zoom in.

Why is it important to raise awareness about deforestation happening across the world? Here's a sentence starter that you can use.

Raising awareness about deforestation is important because, here's some key words you can use.

Educate, people, deforestation, impact, plant and animal species, conscious, product, organisations.

Pause the video now and answer that question.

Well done, that was a really tricky task, but I'm so glad you had a go.

Let's have a look at my answer and you can compare your own answer to mine.

So I said, raising awareness about deforestation is important because people can be educated about the impact of deforestation on plant and animal species.

People will then be able to make conscious decisions about the products they buy and the organisations they support.

I wonder if your answer looks like mine.

You can tick or fix your answer, if you need to add anything extra.

Pause the video while you do that.

Great work everyone.

Let's move on.

So now we thinking about wildlife conservation and in particular, we're thinking about the corn bunting.

Now corn buntings have declined by 89% since 1970, across the UK.

In Wales, the challenge fund created by the countryside council for Wales, supported a survey in 2008, where they looked for different species of birds and sadly, no male corn buntings were found.

Now this has led the Royal society for the protection of birds, better known as RSPB to believe that corn buntings may be extinct in Wales.

That means they believe that there are no more corn bunting in Wales.

Now the loss of birds such as corn bunting, is believed to be a result of the following things.

Loss of mixed farming meaning a loss of habitat.

So this is not just the habitats of the birds themselves, but also the insects that they eat and depend on for survival.

The second is an increased use of pesticides causing the loss of insect species.

Now of course, if pesticides kill the insects then birds like the corn bunting no longer have food to eat.

Increased field sizes meaning the loss of hedgerows such as hedges and weedy field margins.

Now, if these hedgerows and the weedy field margins in between fields are lost that means a loss of insect habitats and a loss of habitats for these birds, where they make their nests.

And finally growth in the density of towns and cities that decrease countryside habitats.

So if you think about towns and cities growing as more and more people move into them, it means that they're encroaching on countryside habitats and eventually destroying those habitats, that birds and insects and plant life live in.

I would like you to tell me one reason for the decline of the corn bunting, you can shout it out.

Excellent work.

So you might have said the loss of mixed farming, meaning the loss of habitats.

You might have said increased use of pesticides causing the loss of insect species.

Maybe you said increased field sizes, meaning the loss of hedgerows and weedy field margins.

Or you might have said the growth in density of towns and cities that decrease countryside habitats.

Well done everyone.

So the RSPB have some objectives to try and raise the numbers of corn buntings.

The first thing they want to do is analyse issues contributing to the decline of corn buntings in Wales.

They've already started that work and they've got some aims that they want to get to by the end of this year.

Lets have a look at rest of them.

They wanted to work with farmers and landowners to provide habitats for corn buntings and other farmland birds.

They wanted to provide training, support and advice to other organisations such as biodiversity officers in the local council, so that everyone's working together to raise the number of corn buntings and other farmland birds.

They want to raise local awareness about the corn bunting so that people like you and I know what we can do to contribute, to helping raise the numbers of corn buntings.

And finally, they want to help increase Wales population of male corn buntings to 10 which doesn't sound like many, but that's enough to make sure the species survives by the end of 2020.

I wonder if by the end of this lesson, you can with your parent or carer, do some research to see the number of corn buntings in Wales or male corn buntings in Wales at this time.

So, I'm going to set you a task.

The task I want you to do is I want you to find out about wildlife conservation in your local area.

I went away and I did this.

I learned that the number of bees in London has declined significantly in the last few decades.

Here's some information that I learned about bees.

Bees have declined in London due to habitat loss, climate change, the use of toxic pesticides and diseases.

To help increase the number of bees in London, I have planted bee friendly flowers in my garden such as lavender and Jasmine.

So I picked out a species that is in decline and needs help in terms of conservation.

I found out why they've been in decline and I found out what I could do to help raise their numbers.

This is what you're going to do.

Let's have a closer look.

With the help of a parent or carer, do some research about wildlife species that have declined in your local area.

Find out what is the name of the species? Why have the numbers declined over time? What can you do to increase the species number? Pause the video while you complete this task.

I wonder which species you found out, perhaps it was a plant species, perhaps it was an animal species.

I'd really love to see the species that you found out about and what you're going to do to help, to raise the number in your local area.

Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson A really big well done and all the fantastic learning you've achieved today.

And if you're able to please do take a picture of your work and ask your parents or carer, to share it with your teacher so that they can see all of the fantastic things you've learned today.

And if you'd like to, you can ask your parent or carer to send a picture of your work to @OakNational on Twitter, so I can see your lovely work too.

That's all that's left for me to say, take care.

Don't forget to do your quiz at the end of the lesson and enjoy the rest of your learning for today.