Few things can have greater impact than the sight of rainforest trees lying on their sides, their roots upended, gnarled and knotted, exposed to cold northern skies, bereft of the warm tropical earth that once fed them, writes Theresa Thompson.

Stumps now, remnants of living things, on man-made plinths in an urban setting, the ten once tall rainforest trees from Ghana that form Ghost Forest are a potent symbol of the threat facing forests worldwide.

In Oxford the stumps, most with their roots intact “like the nerve endings of the planet”, according to local artist Angela Palmer who brought them to the UK, lie beside a tall living evergreen, the 33.9 metre-high Wellingtonia on the lawn of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

In November 2009, they were beside another great city landmark, in London’s Trafalgar Square around Nelson’s Column, subsequently going to Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change conference.

This art installation stimulates senses other than just sight. The sense of smell, for one: visitors revelled in the smell of the wood, redolent of forests known or imagined, when they saw the installation in London or Copenhagen.

I Touched the Rainforest is a six-month programme of events taking place beside the Ghost Forest trees until July 31, when the trees leave Oxford. It encourages us to use our senses, to see, touch, smell, even taste, and, above all, think. First and foremost, I Touched the Rainforest invites every schoolchild in Oxfordshire — numbering 101,000 — to come and literally touch and smell the rainforest.

Already proving a success, the initiative is generating Ghost Forest-inspired works from poetry to art, photography, music and theatre.

One idea is particularly appealing: a drawing competition using charcoal — wood to wood. Direct contact, experiencing a rainforest tree can make deforestation of the world’s trees very real.

Oxfordshire schoolchildren can also plant native trees on a Cumnor plantation. The first batch of 20 was planted on March 6 and planting will restart in earnest next autumn. Meantime, schools can tend the trees, weeding, mulching and so on.

There’s a Grand Banquet of Rainforest Insects to look forward to. Yes! Just turn up at noon on Sunday, March 27, at the Ghost Forest for the chance to sample the delights of ants, crickets, grasshoppers and so on — the natural bounty of the forest in other words — served up by a former MasterChef winner now restaurateur Thomasina Miers known for her Mexican food, and the ambassador of Colombia who will bring some Colombian ants.

The serious message behind the fun is to address food security, emerging as a key issue in the climate change debate.

And there’s a picnic, too, in midsummer on the theme of palm oil, a major driver of deforestation.

I put my nose to the rainforest trees. No luck. I couldn’t smell them, the wood or the forest. Maybe it was my nose? Maybe the day was the wrong sort of day? Maybe the wood washed out by months of European rain?

Angela has since told me it is best on rainier days — that the Denya smells like wild garlic and the stump that’s a Henry Moore lookalike fishy “like kedgeree”.