Topic: Forest distribution worldwide. Wasteful and rational management of forest resources

Target group

Second‑grade student of high school and technical school, basic programme

Core curriculum

X. Agriculture, forestry and fishing: factors of agricultural development, structure of agricultural land, areas of cultivation and animal husbandry, sustainable forest management, fisheries (sea and inland, aquaculture).

Student:

4) explains the spatial diversity of the forest cover indicator in the world and in Poland, presents the multiple values of the forest and justifies the necessity of rational management of forest resources in accordance with the principles of sustainable forest management and nature conservation;

5) shows the natural, social and economic significance of forests;

General aim of education:

The student will gain knowledge of the largest forest complexes in the world indicated on the map. He or she will also list examples of overexploitation and rational forest management.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to name the largest forest complexes in the world;

• to list forests' economic and non‑economic functions;

• to point where in the world forests are the most depleted and repleted;

• to explain how to manage and how not to manage forest resources.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• exposing

  • exposition.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• physical map of the world;

• geographical atlases;

• projector.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher gives students the topic and goals of the lesson.

• He asks students to indicate the function of forests. Talk.

Realization

• The teacher displays on the multimedia board a map from the e‑textbook: World of the largest plant formations. Students using geographical atlases give the names of the geographical areas where the taiga and humid equatorial forest occur. The teacher completes the information that the forest resources of the world also include subtropical and deciduous forests and mixed temperate zones. Discussion.

• The teacher displays tables on the multimedia table from the e‑textbook: Variety of forest cover in the world. Students search in the geographical atlas of the countries listed in the table. Using their own knowledge and the Internet, they give reasons for the diversified afforestation in the countries mentioned..

• The teacher displays on the multimedia table tables from the e‑textbook: The countries with the largest forest area and The state with the largest amount of harvested wood. Students analyze the reasons for differences in these data. Discussion.

• The teacher asks students what forest management is about. Students on the basis of their own knowledge, Internet resources and the manual show the scope of activity.

• Work in pairs. Based on various source materials, such as a textbook for teaching geography, e‑textbook, Internet and own knowledge, students develop the causes and effects of deforestation in the Amazon example.

Summary

• The teacher evaluates the work of the selected group. He asks for self‑esteem of students regarding team cooperation and the task performed.

• At the end of the class, the teacher displays on the interactive whiteboard exercises that are performed by the whole class team.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Forest distribution worldwide. Wasteful and rational management of forest resources

There are two large woody plant formations on Earth: taiga and humid equatorial forest. Situated at middle and high latitudes, taiga occupies the surface of approximately 19 million kmIndeks górny 2², while the area of humid equatorial forest is approximately 14 million kmIndeks górny 2².

Apart from those large formations, forests grow in other climate zones as well, but they do not occupy such sizeable areas. The main limitation is the insufficient supply of water for such big plants. This can be particularly sharply noticed in equatorial zone. There is also little woodland in those countries, where trees were cut down e.g. the United Kingdom or Denmark. The rate of wood areas (forest cover) varies much between different countries of the world as can be seen in table 1 Other tables present countries with the highest wood area in 2010 (table 2) and countries with the highest quantities of harvested wood (table 3).

Forests have been cut down and otherwise exploited for ages, but it was the industrial revolution that created an increased demand for wood and provided technical means to satisfy this demand. Since the industrial revolution first happened in Europe and North America, this is where massive logging started first. Due to significant depletion of wood area in temperate zone, growing demand and availability of more efficient transport, this intensive exploitation moved to equatorial forests. It is estimated that human activities caused the area of all forests to decrease by 18 million kmIndeks górny 2².

Every year, about 130,000 kmIndeks górny 2² of woods is cut down on Earth. It means that in the last 20 years 1.4 million kmIndeks górny 2² of forest disappeared. This happened when forest's non‑economic significance was already well known. Luckily, the rate of deforestation worldwide is falling down. In addition, there are afforestation plans carried out, the forest also grows back naturally. Afforestation and natural regeneration mean that the annual wood depletion worldwide is 52,000 kmIndeks górny 2².

The global differences in areas affected by deforestation process are clearly visible. In two regions of the world, forests deplete at an alarmingly high rate. Those are humind equatorial forest zones in Africa and South America, which are exceptionally important in terms of nature. Luckily, at the same time wood areas in other regions are expanding.

The differences are even more visible when we look at the individual countries in the world. Those countries, where deforestation proceeds at high rate, are less developed economically and their populations grow faster - for them, forest logging is an important source of income. Meanwhile, forests are expanding in both developing countries and developed countries. Those countries increase their forest cover primarily because of the forests' non‑economic significance. They understand that the management of forest resources must be sustainable. You can see how fast deforestation and afforestation go in the selected countries in table 4.