Newscasts - Amazon ‘treehouse classroom’ a remote lifeline in Peru

Udemy

24/01/2024 09:24

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_vfskmlcc&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2024:newsml_RW474823012024RP1_K15&pageId=Newscasts
Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: As the United Nations observes its International Day of Education
(January 24), a connected 'treehouse classroom' built more than 100-feet up in
the Amazon Rainforest canopy is helping educate adults in remote Indigenous
communities and give them new skills to pivot away from illegal logging and
mining. Emma Jehle has more.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/47S8pvk

Video Transcript:

This treehouse classroom may be one of the world's most extreme educational
spaces. Built over 100-feet up in the Amazon Rainforest canopy, it is the home
of educational programs for adults in remote Indigenous communities in Peru.
The goal is to provide new skills so people can pivot away from illegal
logging and mining. JJ Durand is Vice President of Junglekeepers, a local
conservation charity dedicated to protecting this region of the Peruvian
Amazon, one of the most biodiverse and pristine areas on earth.

For the forests, I feel very sad because living animals is dying. You see all
logs in the ground. It is like people dying. It is very sad. From the other
side, I feel the people here who does logging, they need a little bit of- I
mean, we all need upgrades in education. The main thing is, I think, the
biggest problem is education.

Made from sustainable wood, it has solar power, high speed satellite Internet,
and accommodations for overnight stays.

To build the treehouse took us four months to build. 30 people and they work
all day, from five to five. And for us, it was tough, very hard. But building
32 meters tall treehouse, it needed a lot of effort, and it has 141 steps to
get to the top.

The classroom was built by Tamandua Expeditions and funded by Udemy, an online
education company. Udemy is providing the Indigenous young adult forest
rangers of Junglekeepers access to learning courses to study at their
headquarters in the evening. The treehouse also functions as a treetop tourist
stop, offering a stay in the jungle canopy at $1,450 per night.

This treehouse has to be one of the most remote classrooms all over the world.
These people are not only learning their skills up there, but they are
learning more about their surroundings, about their community, about nature,
about this land they are trying to preserve.

Durand says that many young people are forced to leave school around 11 or 12
years old to take jobs in logging or mining.

If they have a better education, definitely they will have another opportunity
to do because they will have different job to do. Also, they can have a little
bit of money so they can buy other things, than only be a logger.

Deforestation across the Amazon Rainforest slowed dramatically last year,
according to an analysis by a nonprofit focused on monitoring the Amazon
Rainforest. It is down more than 55% from the same period in 2022, a major
turnaround for a region vital to curbing climate change