Sky and WWF launch I Love Amazon Week

Schools who want to go on an exciting journey of discovery to learn about the wonders of the rainforest are being encouraged to get involved in an inspiring new project.  I Love Amazon Week is a free initiative that gives pupils aged seven to eleven the opportunity to explore the Amazon rainforest through a fantastic range of flexible curriculum based resources.

As part of Sky Rainforest Rescue - a partnership between Sky and WWF which aims to help save one billion trees in the Amazon rainforest - schools will be able to register at sky.com/amazonweek to download assembly content, lesson plans, work sheets and fun activity ideas to involve the whole school.

Home to one in ten of all wild species on earth, including the iconic jaguar, the Amazon is a unique and irreplaceable ecosystem.  The Amazon rainforest provides us with a wide variety of products such as food, paper, wood and even medicines.  It’s estimated that about 20 per cent of the earth's oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest.

All of us, people and wildlife, locally and globally depend on it every day. But unfortunately it’s often been more economically viable for people to cut the forest down rather than keep it standing, so people often resort to chopping down trees in order to make a living.  Deforestation is putting the future of the people, animals and plants that call the Amazon their home, at risk.  And it's also having a huge impact on climate change.

Cherry Duggan, head of schools and youth, at WWF-UK said: "It's extraordinary to think that every minute of every day an area equivalent to the size of three football pitches will be destroyed in the Amazon.  By signing up to I Love Amazon Week teachers can bring the rainforest straight into the classroom and bring the issues to life.  We want children to engage in the awe and beauty of the rainforest but also to realise its importance and fragility.  As the next generation, our school children play a vital role in understanding and protecting this amazing treasure trove of biodiversity."

I Love Amazon Week can be run at any time throughout the year in order to be flexible and fit with individual school year schedules. Teachers can simply pick and choose from the extensive range of downloadable educational tools and plan the week according to term timetables.  Schools can register online to receive a free resource pack and poster.  Pupils will also receive a certificate and individual stickers once the week has been completed.

Sarah Anderson, Sky Rainforest Rescue project manager, said: “We are delighted to be launching I love Amazon Week as part of our broader work to help save one billion trees in the Amazon with Sky Rainforest Rescue.  Together with WWF we think that inspiring the younger generation is crucial to tackling the important issue of deforestation”

Win a visit from a Sky News reporter
As part of I Love Amazon Week, Sky and WWF are running a young reporter writing competition where budding news reporters can show off their journalistic skills.  Taking part is easy, all pupils have to do is write an attention grabbing news report or produce a short video report about any topic of their choice linked to the Amazon.  The pupil with the best report will win their school a visit from a Sky News reporter, as well as £500 towards a green project of their school’s choice. 

How to enter
Written entries should be no more than 200 words and video entries should be no longer than two minutes long based on a topic linked to the Amazon.  This might be based on some of the I Love Amazon Week activities or inspired by pupils’ own research.  The closing date for entries is Friday 28 June 2013. For more information please visit: sky.com/amazonweek

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Notes to Editor

About Sky Rainforest Rescue:
Through Sky Rainforest Rescue, WWF and Sky are helping to save one billion trees in the Amazonian state of Acre, Brazil. By combining WWF’s 50 years of conservation experience with Sky’s expertise in public engagement, we have:

• Raised over £4m to carry out our work by encouraging over 34,000 people to donate to the campaign
• Begun implementing a robust programme of green economic development in Acre
• Improved awareness of deforestation and its impacts on the global climate among a significant UK audience, including Sky’s 10.5m customers

Since October 2009, WWF and Sky have been supporting the Acre state government to roll out a progressive development plan, which aims to tackle deforestation at the same time as improving opportunities for people living in the forest.

By supporting the people who live in the project area to make a good living without deforesting, we aim to create a buffer against encroachment into the pristine and largely uninhabited forest and provide an alternative development pathway to forest loss and conversion. Through Sky Rainforest Rescue, WWF and Sky are supporting two key incentive systems designed to achieve this – sustainable property management and sustainable product development.  For more information visit sky.com/rainforestrescue

About Sky:
Sky is the UK and Ireland’s leading home entertainment and communications company.  Around 40% of all homes have a direct relationship with Sky through its range of TV, broadband and home telephony services.  Sky believes in making a wider contribution to the communities in which it operates by taking positive action on the environment, supporting grassroots sports and increasing access to, and participation in, the arts.  Sky employs 23,000 people, has annual revenues of £6.8 billion and is estimated to support a £5.4 billion contribution to UK GDP.  Sky is listed on the London Stock Exchange (BSY).  sky.com/corporate

About WWF:
WWF is one of the world's largest independent conservation organisations, with more than five million supporters and a global network active in more than one hundred countries.  We're working to create solutions to the most serious environmental issues facing our planet, so that people and nature can thrive.  Through our engagement with the public, businesses and government, we focus on safeguarding the natural world, tacking climate change and changing the way we live. Find out more about our work, past and present at wwf.org.uk

For further information, please contact:
Kellie Rollings, tel: 01483 412340, email: krollings@wwf.org.uk