Online Lesson

Save the Moonflowers

Introduction:

Margaret Mee (1909-1988) was a botanical artist who often traveled up the Amazon River alone in search of rare flowers to collect and paint. Even at the age of 79, she planned to return to the Amazon for another excursion. On Thanksgiving Day in 1988, Ms. Mee was interviewed on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour; she fascinated the television audience with her accounts of her travels. Tragically, she was killed in an auto accident less than a week later. Even after her death, however, she is still having a profound impact on the preservation of rare flowers in the rainforests. In this lesson, you will learn how Mee's activities are helping markets save the rare moonflower.

(image courtesy of Margaret Mee's
Amazon by Antique Collector's Club)

Task:

In this lesson you will:

1. Describe how markets can be used to preserve rare flora and fauna.
2. Given a resource, identify its alternative uses.

Process:

 Activity 1:

Go to the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation for a complete transcript of Margaret Mee's final interview:

http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Art/Mee.shtml

Answer these questions based upon the interview above:

 Activity 2:

View satellite images of deforestation around Santa Cruz, Bolivia at:

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002000/a002096/index.html

Make general observations about the satellite images of the region for 1984 and 1998. The forests are indicated by green regions; deforested areas are indicated by reddish-brown areas. (Note: It is not necessary to click on the links to the other image files or the Quicktime movie. They take a long time to download.)

 Activity 3:

Use the Amazon Boat Trip article to complete this Activity.

 Activity 4:

1. What do you know about endangered plants and animals? Is there one that particularly interests you? Create a travel brochure for a tour of the habitat that sustains that plant or animal.
2. Can you think of any situation in which tourists cannot help preserve an area by paying to visit it? How can the area be preserved?

Conclusion:

This lesson outlined the concepts of markets and natural resources while discussing the experiences of Margaret Mee. Rare flowers, such as the moonflower, have benefited from the activities provided by markets which are helping preserve  their existence.