Educação e percepção ambiental em parques nacionais da Mata Atlântica

Abstract

Centuries of a perception that humans and nature are disassociated, added to the exploration and negligence of the environment, have led to a worrying moment to our planet, in which planetary boundaries are being exceeded. This issue demands an urgent change in the current societal and civilizational model, and critical Environmental Education plays a fundamental role in this process. Through the construction of values, concepts, skills and attitudes, critical Environmental Education seeks a transformation towards a sustainable society. Since most of the Brazilian population lives in the area of the Atlantic Forest, and that this biome is home to several social and economic realities, it is important to promote critical Environmental Education allied to Environmental Perception studies in this region, enabling the comprehension of the relationships between individuals and the environment, as well as knowledge exchange between local and scientific communities. These actions can contribute to integrating the community in regional planning and development; to the adaptation and rethinking of Environmental Education to each reality; and to the utilization of natural resources in a more rational way. In this sense, National Parks are important actors, since they affect and are affected by the populations that live near or within them. Therefore, this study has the objective of evaluating how and if Environmental Education actions are carried out in each Atlantic Forest National Park, how is their planning and evaluation, if they receive any return on the impacts of the activities and if there are studies about the Environmental Perception of surrounding communities. To this end, Management Plans of these Protected Areas were analyzed, questionnaires were sent to managers of the Parks through the online platform Question Pro and studies in several research platforms were carried out. From this, it was possible to verify that, in many Parks, Environmental Education is considered an important tool for sensitizing the population and stimulating its participation, although it is rarely approached in a critical way. In addition, despite the plans for implementing Environmental Education programs in Protected Areas, the lack of financial and human resources often prevents the full implementation of these plans. Finally, few Parks receive any feedback on what has been assimilated during the actions and research on Environmental Perception is rare, with the subject generally appearing in a brief way in other studies. This lack of data makes it impossible to compare the impressions of the communities before and after Environmental Education activities, and it is not possible to say to what extent they are influencing people’s relations with the environment and with National Parks. Despite the impossibility of highlighting the exclusive role of Environmental Education in this process, it became clear that these activities, together with the creation of advisory councils and with the holding of public consultations and meetings, have increasingly integrated Atlantic Forest National Parks with their surrounding communities