- Watch the ‘Rang Tan’ animation as a group and ask the group to share how it made them feel by writing their response on a sticky note and sticking to the wall.
- Ask the group to consider the reasons why deforestation of the rainforests is such a bad thing — they may mention the loss of habitat for animals, loss of trees which produce oxygen, burning of forest trees.
- Look at the ingredients listed on food and toiletry packaging (you could ask the young people to bring in a selection of their favourite sweets or snacks).
- Which ones contain palm oil?
- Sort the products / wrappers into two piles – those that contain palm oil and those that don’t. Do any of them mention ‘sustainable palm oil’?
- What is this and how is it better?
- Ask the young people to form smaller groups and use resources from Chester Zoo & Greenpeace to explore the issues around palm oil production. Older participants may be able to do their own research and identify other sources of information.
Resources to support young people in finding out about this topic are available from Chester Zoo and from Greenpeace
Take it further
Ask the young people to share what they have found out with the whole group.
Then ask them to use the sticky notes to suggest ideas for practical action they could take, wither individually or as a group — this might include educating the public, lobbying food manufacturers, or raising money for organisations that are protecting the rainforests.
If there are lots of viable ideas you could use a process like dot voting to choose a smaller number to take forward at a future session.