Eden's new Rainforest Encounter

We have plans to create Europe’s leading rainforest education resource right here at the Eden Project. A 150-metre walkway stretching through the treetops, which will take visitors on a journey of discovery. On this journey the story of the rainforests, their plight and their hope for the future will unfold.

Donate to this project between 5 and 9 December 2011 and the Big Give will double your money! Donate via the Big Give

Our Biome, the largest rainforest in captivity has helped raise awareness of the value of the world’s rainforests amongst millions of people. But we want to do more, we want to inspire more people to take action to conserve them – and we intend to do it by offering visitors a unique and inspiring new Rainforest Encounter, complete with a mysterious canopy walkway and an authentic expedition base camp.

What is the Rainforest Encounter?

It’s a new multisensory experience inside our Rainforest Biome, which will help visitors of all ages to learn more about the rainforest – from the food they provide to the people that live there – and to see the value of this precious natural resource. A living classroom without walls, where plants, art, architecture and education combine to take the communication of science, sustainability and conservation to a new level.

Experience the Rainforest Encounter

Scroll our slideshow for a preview of how we’re creating Europe’s leading rainforest education resource here at Eden.

A Canopy Walkway

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  Support our campaign

  Donate via the Big Give between 5 and 9 December, and they'll double the amount we receive!

  Donate via the Big Give
  At over 150m long and stretching through the treetops of our Rainforest Biome, the walkway will take visitors on a journey of exploration into the forest to discover its secrets. At 12m high, it will give visitors the chance to experience this awe-inspiring space from up among the trees.
• Throughout their journey, visitors will come across everything from storytellers and art installations to microscopes, telescopes and periscopes.
• They will have the chance to cross tantalising rope bridges, crawl through misty tunnels, and explore intimate pods – spaces designed to look and feel very much like the natural structures of the rainforest, which are home to its varied wild creatures.
• The snaking, organic, vine-like metal structure of the walkway itself is all part of the journey too – and we are ensuring that it’s accessible to all.
  

An Expedition Base Camp

• This is where groups – from schools to families – begin their Rainforest Encounter, before heading onto the canopy walkway. A far cry from a traditional classroom, this education space will be more like an authentic field station, a truly engaging educational experience.
• Imagine a beautifully shaped structure kitted out with hammocks, solar-powered laptops, lab equipment and mosquito nets. Inside, visitors will be able to discover what rainforest researchers and climate scientists get up to in the field, and attend workshops and talks.

Explorer’s trekking experience

• Rainforest scientists use many techniques to get around. Though the research outcomes are serious, their aerial laboratories are akin to working in an adventure playground. Working with rainforest research designers, we aim to install a series of aerial rope traverses integral to the Walkway; learning through play.
• There will also be trail routes through the under-storey where the adventurous can discover deeper secrets of the forest.
  

Support our rainforest walkway

Our new canopy walkway will be an inspirational and transformative experience. A generation that does not understand or value the natural world will not strive to protect it, but Eden is uniquely placed to demonstrate the vital role rainforests play in all our lives and to inspire action.

We're already half way to our target but need your support to reach our goal. Donate now and help us achieve this.

• £5 could enable a schoolchild to take part in a canopy challenge workshop
• £15 could purchase a seed for a new tropical giant
• £100 could help us build one of the buttress root structures to support the treetop walkway

How to donate

• Double your donation to us by donating via the Big Give between 5 and 9 December.
• Make a one-off donation or a regular donation on-line, to the Eden Project
• Donate by mobile phone: text "Eden10 £5" to 70070
• Buy a personalised bronze rainforest leaf to support our work. Download the order form.
  
  

'Rainforest is the glue that holds the climate of our planet together. Lose the forest and it will have devastating consequences for all life on earth.'

Professor Sir Ghillean Prance