Nature Journaling

What makes a healthy ecosystem? And where do we as humans fit into it? Students were encouraged to sketch what they imagined a healthy vs. an unhealthy ecosystem to be, and, based on their drawings, one thing is for certain - healthy ecosystems are colorful and full of life! Flourishing forests and clean running water not only support the diverse wildlife of Ranomafana, but as student Sylverinah observed in one drawing below, allow us to continue to grow food, support new forests, and provide us with the resources needed for leading healthy daily lives. And, of course, a rainbow every now and then never hurts! 🌈

In this lesson, students learned how the sun’s energy (masoandro) flows to the trees (hazo), to herbivores like insects (bibikely), to carnivores like small birds (vorona), to larger birds of prey (papango), and back to the decomposers like mushrooms (holatra).