Geography: Tropical Rainforests and Map Skills

Geographical Skills

• Complete 4 and 6 figure grid references
• Recognize basic map symbols
• Understand contour lines

Tropical Rainforests

• Types of plants in TRFs: adaptations include buttress roots
• Types of animals in TRFs: adaptations include orangutans
• Climate of TRFs: hot and humid with high rainfall
• Global distribution of TRFs: near the equator
• Causes of deforestation: logging, agriculture, urbanization, etc.
• Local scale impacts of deforestation: extinction of species, habitat loss
• Global scale impacts of deforestation: climate change, loss of biodiversity
• Sustainable management methods: agroforestry, reforestation, conservation

Tourism

• Reasons for increase in tourism: increased accessibility, economic growth, social media
• Change in demand for tourism: greater desire for experiential travel, luxury tourism
• Positive impacts of tourism: economic growth, cultural exchange, job creation
• Negative impacts of tourism: environmental degradation, cultural exploitation, overcrowding
• Impacts on LICs and HICs: differences in economic benefits, cultural sensitivity, and infrastructure development
• Case studies: examples of sustainable tourism initiatives, ecotourism

Africa

• Human development indicators: life expectancy, literacy rate, GDP per capita
• Inequalities across countries: variance in HDI scores, poverty rates, education levels
• Physical and climatic geographies: deserts, mountains, disease ecology
• Debt: foreign debt, debt relief, economic constraints
• Education and industry: lack of investment, brain drain, informal economies
• Disease and poor healthcare: malaria, HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality
• Improving living conditions: increasing access to education, healthcare, sanitation
• Sustainable Development Goals: 17 goals, 169 targets, global cooperation
• International aid: effectiveness, conditionalities, dependency complexes