Jacob Andrén in search for “his” forest. Photo: Helena Nygren.
Jacob Andrén, an ordinary Swedish school kid in the 1980′s, was one of all the millions of children globally who gathered up with his class mates and collected money to “save the rainforest”. Many of us did it, selling home made cookies or walking the streets of our cities with money collecting boxes. The money was transfered, a certificate arrived and decorated lots of classrooms as a memory of the deeds. But what actually happened to the forest?
20 years later, Jacob starts asking himself these questions and ends up going to Costa Rica to find out for himself. In the film “I bought a rainforest” we can follow him on his journey through lush jungle and devastated forests (watch a trailer for the film here).
Rainforest covers about 7 percent of the worlds’s surface, but is home to about half of the worlds’ species. It is also an enormous storage space for coal, which would lead to unbelievable amounts of greenhouse gases being dispersed into the atmosphere if it was cut down or burnt.
To make sure this doesn’t happen action is of course needed on many levels of society, from governments making laws, international reductions of emissions that in the long run affect the rainforest or the way rainforest timber is allowed to be used. But if school children all over the world feel that they can do something about it – and if it actually saves the forest – that probably contributes to a lot more than just stopping the chain saws.
Here you can watch several short films about the different threats against the rainforest and why the forest is so important to the whole planet.
Rio San Juan, Nicaragua. On top of the hills there is a large palm oil plantation. When it rains, pesticides float into the river. Photo: Jacob Andrén.
