Africa's numerous national parks, game reserves, and other protected areas help safeguard the continent's famed wildlife from the effects of excessive or harmful human activities. Using the National Geographic magazine feature Africa MegaFlyover and other resources, students will learn about the African landscape and consider why national parks are important. They will imagine that they've been placed in charge of creating a new African national park, and then draw pictures and write paragraphs about this new park.

Geography

Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"

Two to three hours

• Computer with Internet access

Students will

• view and discuss pictures of Africa's human and natural landscape;
• view pictures of African animals and discuss human-nature interactions;
• examine a map showing Africa's protected areas;
• read about a national park in central Africa;
• draw pictures of a new national park in Africa; and
• write paragraphs explaining why this new national park is important.

Ask students if anyone has ever visited a national park. If so, what was the park like? Did many people live there? Did they see many animals? What steps were taken to protect the animals from the human visitors? What steps were taken to protect human visitors from animals?

Explain that one of the main purposes of national parks is to protect wildlife from the damages that human activities, such as building and driving, can cause. Also explain that the United States is not the only country that has national parks. Most countries in Africa also have national parks, reserves, and other areas that protect wildlife.

Have students go to Africa Focus and select "Search Atlas." They will be taken to a page with a map of Africa and its countries.

Have students click on Tanzania (East Africa), Gabon (West Africa), Namibia (southern Africa), and Algeria (North Africa) and look at pictures from these countries. If time is limited and technology allows, show the pictures to the entire class with a projector.

Discuss what the pictures reveal about the natural environment (plants, animals, landscape) and human activities in the places students have explored. Do there appear to be many people in these parts of Africa, or are these primarily wilderness areas with very few people?

Have students go to National Geographic's Creature Feature archive and spend a couple minutes looking at pictures of some of the following African animals: cheetahs, chimpanzees, crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, hippopotamuses, lemurs, lions, rhinoceroses, and warthogs.

Discuss the possible difficulties that might arise when people and these wild animals live close together. What might be difficult for the animals? What might be difficult for people? Then discuss some of the good things about people living near wild animals (e.g., learning about the animals on a daily basis or the fact that animals help to reduce pest populations).

Have students go to the MegaFlyover Web site and click on "See the complete HF map" in small letters above the map of Africa. (A new window will open up on their screens, showing the Human Footprint map of Africa.)

Have students click on Map Data Layers in the upper right of this window. Ask them to click on "The Human Footprint" to deselect this layer. Then have them click on "Protected Areas" and then "Map Data Layers" again to close that menu.

They will now see a map showing Africa's protected areas in red, the majority of which are national parks. Ask students to describe the patterns they see on this map. Which areas have the most protected areas? Which have the largest? The smallest? Are there any countries that have no protected areas?

Have students go to the World Wildlife Fund's Field Expeditions: Central African Republic Dzanga-Sangha Reserve page. For older or more advanced students, ask them to read the first paragraph, and help them understand what it means. For younger students, paraphrase this paragraph to the class so they can understand why this reserve was formed.

Have students look at the picture of the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve. Explain that this tropical rain forest environment is very different from the African savanna that students may have seen pictures of. Both landscape types have national parks and preserves with abundant plant and animal life.

Discuss the importance of national parks for African animals. Why do animals need to be protected? What might happen if animals don't have their own space and instead must always share space with people?

Have students imagine that they've been placed in charge of designing a new national park in Africa. Have them work in groups or individually to draw pictures of this new national park and write paragraphs explaining why it's important to have a new protected area.

• Have students return to the MegaFlyover page and the Human Footprint map. Ask them to click on Map Data Layers and to click on "The Human Footprint" to deselect this layer. Have them click on "Access" and then "Map Data Layers" again to close the menu.
  
  Students will see a map showing Africans' level of access to roads, railroads, and rivers. Discuss why it can be helpful to understand access to transportation when discussing how people impact the environment. Which area has greater human impact—an area with a lot of roads, or an area with very few roads? Why is this the case? How might roads, railroads, and rivers be bad for animals? How might they be good?
  
  
• Paraphrase for the class the National Geographic News article, Africa Explorer Takes Off on Yearlong Aerial Survey, or have advanced readers read it on their own. Students should understand the following points:
  
  
  • Michael Fay (at left in the photograph) is about to embark on a yearlong trip to explore Africa in the red airplane.
  • He plans to study and photograph evidence of human impact on Africa's wilderness from the air.
  • He'll look for roads, trails, huts, and other human-made things. He'll also try to see what shape the wildlife and vegetation are in (e.g., how many animals he can spot and whether the plants look healthy) to determine whether human activities have been harmful to animals and plants.
  • He's trying to find some of the places that can most likely be conserved as natural areas.
  
  Ask students to predict some of the things Fay might observe, based on what they've learned about in this lesson. Will he see many people and human-made objects from the air? Will he see much wildlife? Will he find new areas that are in need of protection?

Africa Focus
National Geographic Magazine: Africa MegaFlyover—Charting the Last Wild Places on Earth
National Geographic News: Africa Explorer Takes Off on Yearlong Aerial Survey
National Geographic: Creature Feature
Wildlife Conservation Society