Children Rescue A Rainforest

Roland Tiensuu and his first- and second-grade classmates in Sweden sat, spellbound, as their teacher, Ms. Eha Kern, introduced them to the magical world of rainforests

- Carol Kim

They learned about cuddly sloths, brightly colored birds, poisonous frogs and snakes, and monkeys that swung from branches and howled.

The year was 1987. Ms. Kern went on to describe how rainforests were being cut down and destroyed for farming and timber. The children watched a film, shocked by images of bulldozers toppling majestic trees. Despite being only nine years old and half a world away, they desperately wanted to help save the rainforests.

But what could they do?

Then Roland had an idea. “Why can’t we buy some rainforest?”

It seemed farfetched. “You can’t just find a rainforest to buy,” Kern recalled saying. But the children were insistent.

As luck would have it, an American biologist named Sharon Kinsman happened to be visiting Stockholm. Kern asked her to visit their classroom. Kinsman told them about rainforest land in Monteverde (mohn-te-ver-day), Costa Rica that could be purchased through the Monteverde Conservation League (MCL).

The children sprang into action. They wrote a play about the rainforests and charged admission for the performance. They made and sold books and paintings. By the end of the evening, they had raised $240, enough to buy 15 acres of rainforest.

But the children were just getting started. They held bake sales. They wrote, performed and recorded songs, and sold them. They organized a fair with pony rides, a market, and even a rabbit-jumping contest.

By December, they had raised another $1,400, enough to buy 90 more acres of rainforest. Kern and her husband formed an organization, Barnens Regnskog (bahrnenz rrangs-koog) (Children’s Rainforest), to manage the funds and send them to the MCL.